At least two Cincinnati City Council members want to end restrictions on food trucks that the city manager put in place two months ago.
In early September, City Manager Sheryl Long announced an 11 p.m. curfew for food trucks operating in Downtown and Over-the-Rhine on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday nights. Some City Council members questioned the decision at the time, asking for data to support that there are problems associated with food trucks.
The answer came more than two months later in a Council committee Wednesday morning: the new regulations may have had a moderate effect on police calls for service, but the impact on reported crime is inconclusive.
What the data says
Police Department Senior Crime Analyst Jillian Desmond identified three zones where officers have reported a concentration of food trucks late at night:
- in northern Over-the-Rhine near Findlay Market
- in lower Over-the-Rhine along Main Street
- Downtown along West Fourth St.
In two of those areas, calls for service went down very slightly compared to the month before the restrictions. In the third area, near Findlay Market, calls actually went up slightly compared to August — and were more than double the number compared to this time last year.
Desmond says it’s a difficult issue to quantify.
"There might be something else going on in that area, and it could just be that the officers thought there were food trucks in that area, and there just aren't at all," Desmond told Council members. "So I think that there's so much to trying to get data to fit this, and so [many] things happening. At this point, it's really the best possible quantitative measure that we have, and it's just not a good one."
See the full data presentation below (article continues after):
Desmond says overall, the data is limited because the city enacted many public safety efforts over the summer, and it's only been two months since the food truck regulations went into effect.
"And really this fuzzy measure of disorder that could turn very violent or very dangerous — it's really hard to capture [in data] what a potentially dangerous crowd could look like," she said.
Cincinnati Police Capt. David Schofield, District 1 commander, told Council officers have reported less disorder, fighting, and traffic hazards since the restrictions.
"What we're seeing is when people let out of the bars, they're not hanging out in the streets, they're not hanging out on the sidewalks, but people are leaving the areas, and then we're not getting the calls, or they're not seeing the issues," Schofield said.
Cincinnati Food Truck Association President Amy Flottemesch told the committee she wants to work with city administration on any concerns — something the city did not do before enacting the recent restrictions.
"We feel that there are solutions, if we would be able to have a seat at the table in order to offer those solutions and how we can work together, from a public safety standpoint as well as a small business standpoint," Flottemesch said.
Council pushback
Council Member Mark Jeffreys says anecdotal evidence is not enough.
"The data that's been presented clearly shows [in] two of the three zones it's exactly the same. In one zone, it's actually worse," Jeffreys said. "So I don't know, based on the data that's been shared, that we can reasonably sit here and say that this is working."
Council Member Anna Albi questioned several aspects of the data, including whether the calls for service could be specifically attributed to food trucks (they can't).
"Is the issue the bars potentially over-serving or whatnot, or is it actually the food trucks?" Albi said. "Because right now, we have a blanket policy punishing all the food trucks, not specific ones, nor specific bars."
Albi introduced a motion directing the city administration to repeal the 11 p.m. restriction, and if additional interventions are needed, administration would "present the proposals to City Council before implementation."
Jeffreys seconded the motion.
Committee Chair Scotty Johnson voted against it.
"I greatly appreciate data, but I also appreciate the safety of our police officers and how they are perceiving safety in the city," Johnson said. "Our officers need to feel like we're doing our part here at City Hall to assist them in making sure Downtown is safe."
Vice Mayor Jan-Michele Lemon Kearney echoed concerns about the impact on the business owners.
"It hasn't been determined that any uptick in disorder has to do with the food trucks, [but] we are hurting their businesses by limiting the hours," she said.
Still, she voted against Albi's motion. "We need to really look at the entire list of complaints that the food trucks have and bring them to the table. So I'd rather hold on on the motion to change that curfew."
With a tied 2-2 vote, the motion failed. Albi says she is looking into bringing the motion before the full Council for consideration.
Additional ordinance
Separate from Albi's motion is an ordinance up for consideration that would slightly modify city code related to regulating food trucks.
The ordinance has been on the Public Safety Committee's agenda for the past few meetings, but has not been called for a vote yet.
City Council approved new regulations for food trucks about two years ago, allowing a truck to set up in almost any parking space. Before that, mobile food vendors were severely limited to certain "food truck zones."
Current law prohibits a food truck from parking within certain areas, like a residential zoning district, spaces designated for disabled persons, or within a zone that requires a parking permit.
The proposed ordinance would add that a mobile food vendor may not park within "a parking zone or parking spaces during a time when parking or mobile food-vending operations are prohibited."
Current law already allows the city manager or her designee "to establish rules and regulations to provide for the safe, efficient, and orderly administration and enforcement" of city code. This is the authority by which Long enacted the new policy in September.
A city spokesperson told WVXU in a statement the ordinance is intended to clearly establish that the city manager's authority includes "the specific ability to create food truck zones" to prohibit mobile food-vending.
"Even though this step may be viewed as redundant, having more direct law should help to avoid disputes or confusion over the creation and enforcement of these zones," the statement says.
The ordinance would allow the city manager to prohibit food trucks anywhere in the city during certain periods of time, but an assistant city manager told City Council there are no plans to do so outside of Downtown and Over-the-Rhine.
The ordinance will be back up for discussion in the Public Safety and Governance Committee at the next meeting, currently scheduled for the Tuesday before Thanksgiving.
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