The Burnside Blog
City's Food Cart Study. A No Brainer Report
Unlike New York City where now ex-mayor Guiliani tried to ban the carts completely a few years ago, Portland does what our city does best: studies them. Food Carts Portland.com has a pretty good recap or you can read the Portland food cart report here. My take? While the report offers some baseline information, the good stuff is really buried in the report. These include recommendations for making it easier for carts to locate in certain areas, issues to address cart design, and further policy development to incorporate carts into current and future plans and districts such as Skidmore fountain or Waterfront Park.
Did you know that until recently most food carts were banned from Skidmore Fountain and Saturday Market? (That explains a lot about the lack of food options down there) PDC is considering adding a food cart court as part of the forthcoming Mercy Corps and U of O development?
Did you also know Portland generally limits one food cart per City park? We’ve talked here in the past on how to make the Waterfront more lively, and food carts could be the way to go in some park areas. Besides, if it doesn’t work out, they are fairly easy to move. They are after all on wheels and all.
The city estimates there are close to 170 food carts currently operating within city limits, and in recent years surface parking lots downtown and in places like SE 12th and Hawthorne have become food cart “pods”. Even North Mississippi is seeing a blossoming of food carts scattered on the vacant lots that still exist among the rapidly gentrifying properties and mixed-use developments.
Food carts are a growing phenomenon here in Portland and some of them are receiving national attention. Carts in Portland range from humble taco trucks written up in Gourmet Magazine to Sicilian street treats made from local organic ingredients to waffle sandwiches to Asian soup dumplings, to top notch espresso at Spella Caffe.
This leads me to two other questions not addressed in the report. First, why are carts such a growing trend in Portland? Second, why are they so popular here as opposed to say, Seattle*, where there is a higher population density but nary a cart to be found. Any ideas?
By stuart on Tuesday, July 01, 2008 at 12:05PM PDT
Food carts are popular here because they mesh with our city’s DIY culture. Portland is the most entrepreneurial city I’ve ever seen, but as you say, business happens at a very grass roots level. People are independent and love to do their own thing. Seattle used to be like this (Trust me, I lived there in the 1980s and 1990s), but it’s now a pretty boring company town. Seattle-ites are less open to new ideas at this point in time, which I think is sad.