Yule Heibel on 2008-05-30
...indeed!
This link has been bookmarked by 1 people . It was first bookmarked on 30 May 2008, by Yule Heibel.
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30 May 08
Yule HeibelFor a view of how Toronto would propose to "nanny" the street vendors, see Shawn Micallef's article here. It's amazing to note that the city would rather create an additional arm of bureaucracy "in charge" of the actual food carts, versus letting the vendors decide what sort of cart they want to use.
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and lives up to whatever Soviet-style imagery they want to evoke. It’s more annoying because we find ourselves agreeing with these folks.
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In the Star yesterday the Preston-Manning-of-Toronto-Danforth, Case Ootes, complains that “we have to micromanage everything,” and for once, we agree.
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But no, too easy. The meddlers had to engineer it into delay and confusion. First, the city wanted to borrow $700,000 to buy 35 carts and lease them out for $450 a month. Why not just set the cart standards and leave it to the private sector to provide and sell? Because the city wants to block “conglomerates” from taking over this new venture.
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The solution is easy. Forget about this centralized cart-leasing scheme. Issue permits to individual human beings, and then let them decided what kind of cart they will use. Establish some general cart guidelines, but that’s it (”no towering neon signs,” that sort of thing). Maybe some of them will tap into Toronto’s vast design talent and get a unique, locally built cart. Then let them serve whatever they want. Then send around Toronto’s great food inspectors, who enforce some of the world’s toughest food hygiene laws, and see if they’re up to code, just like we do with restaurants in this city. If they’re clean, they would have lineups of austerity-weary customers immediately.
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the creative entrepreneurial spirit in Toronto can move at the speed of light — all that creative city stuff we keep hearing about — but only if we let it happen
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Yule Heibel on 2008-05-30
Exactly!
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