For just a few minutes Friday, all was calm outside of Hampden County Superior Court midday.
The lunch rush was gone and the crew at Boricua Bites had some down time. One member named Angel told WAMC that, around noon, folks were ordering anywhere from 3-5 bacalaítos each.
A fried pancake of sorts, complete with codfish, peppers and some adobo – its Puerto Rican cuisine that went fast at last week’s JazzFest and probably again at The Big E fair later this year.
The food truck offers more than that, and before long, another line emerged and business was back and booming.
The scene was nothing out of the ordinary in Springfield – dozens of trucks regularly set up shop across the city, offering everything from cuisine from the islands to grilled cheese to fusion dishes.
And they bring lines, too. RAD BBQ off of Bay Street documents all of it on Facebook, with Radames Lopez often filming the crowds that show up for the prized brisket he smokes and glazes like a work of art.
The clips often get shared around – including a clip from Lopez in late-June, calling on fans to call on the mayor to do something about a food truck crack down he said was threatening his operation, smoker and all.
“The point of the video is, I need you all to tag the mayor of Springfield, Domenic Sarno - I haven't even been here [for] three weeks and the city’s already kicking me out,” he told followers. “[The] DPW, they’re saying I'm too close to the dine,r within 500 feet with these new regulations they got going on… these ordinances where you can't operate 500 feet from a brick-and-mortar [restaurant]… they're making up stuff as they go.”
The clip alone got one thousand shares as of late-July, and was one of several outcries at the heart of protests against new food truck regulations passed by the city council back in April.
It packed a significant overhaul of the city code’s “Hawkers and Peddlers” section. At the time, it was seen as a solution to issues simmering longer than any brisket.
“This whole thing started because of food trucks at or near bars going late… 1-2 in the morning,” DPW Director Chris Cignoli recounted at an April 7 city council meeting. “As Councilor [Gerry] Martin mentioned, 25-30 cars would show up, music blasting… generators going, lights, music and then the police had to be called to disperse them. This all started simply because of late-night food truck activity that was not controlled.”
Discussed and ultimately passed by the councilors were new hours of operation for food trucks “within the public way” – 6 a.m. to 11 p.m. being the limits. Among the other changes - a new kind of food truck permit with a $125 fee as well as rules forcing food trucks with loud generators to put distance between themselves and residents.
But, those changes and more have proven to be frustrating for food truck operators across the city. So much so, that even though July 1 was the day the rules go into effect, they’ve largely been unenforced as councilors debate what they already passed.
On Thursday, they heard from the vendors themselves, including one unnamed operator who was specifically harmed by the new hour regulations.
“I’ve got two girls [and] got to open at 8 p.m. Why? Because I gotta put them to sleep before I head out - and this is the way I'm making money,” she recounted in a packed meeting room at city hall, noting that police officers on night shifts are some of her best customers. “You’re gonna tell me… the hours I get to work? I'm sacrificing my hours to be able to do that, to close at 1 a.m., to be up at 7 a.m. to take my daughter to school…”
Then there’s the matter of notice. As Cignoli and several city councilors noted, multiple meetings were held in the run-up to April’s vote. Vendor feedback was also incorporated.
However, multiple vendors at Thursday’s meeting said say they never received the emails that went out to trucks registered with the city.
On top of that, there are also cases of language barriers. Even at the meeting, both Councilor Victor Davila and State Representative Carlos Gonzalez provided impromptu translation services for some.
Then, there’s also the matter of how many permits truck operators already have to get. Health and fire permits are among them, and as Shannon Austin, operator of The Stack Haus pointed out, getting those permits can be a major pain.
“It has been a hot mess, and there are so many communities around here that just do it online - Everything is online,” she said of the paperwork process. “You click, click, click… put in your credit card information, and you're good. Springfield is so convoluted. It's like they almost want to make it so that people can't be successful, and that's frustrating. As a community member, I pay taxes — a ton of taxes, I might add. It just needs to be simplified. It's ridiculous.”
Critics say the new regulations lopsidedly affect “microbusinesses” in the city – smaller-than-small businesses, often operated by people already dealing with tight overheads.
Andrew Melendez, the CEO of Legacy Economic Development Corporation (formerly the “Latino Economic Development Corporation), says his organization has helped a number of them with getting their trucks and operations into working order, often through small grants.
Speaking in their defense alongside Rep. Gonzalez Thursday, Melendez said the role the vendors play in the city has only grown – especially when bars and restaurants have already closed for the night and they remain open.
In fact, he argues, the food truck owners reflect much of the city itself.
“The food truck owners that you saw today… they look like the community. This community is 90% Black and Latino in the public schools - it's 75% Black and Latino across the city,” he said Thursday. “And in this room, we had Black and Latino business owners and woman-owned business owners that say that they love the city of Springfield, they want to continue to work in the city of Springfield… they're afraid.”
By the end of the meeting, talk of compromise was in the air. Council President Tracye Whitfield, as well as Cignoli and others, reiterated that the approved rules were created for a reason – the noise complaints and related issues were more than real.
Cignoli also added that the controversial 500-foot distance rule previously mentioned by Lopez had technically already been around for at least a decade.
But, also real are the hurdles that vendors outlined. Councilor Lavar Click-Bruce, who originally presented the new rules months ago, says future meetings on the matter are more than likely, especially when it comes to permitting and the risk of losing businesses to other cities.
“They have to go to several different places to figure this out as far as … fire, health and human services … that is a challenge that we're looking to, hopefully, work with the city and make [the process] a one-stop-shop,” he said.
Ultimately, vendors like De’Jour Washington and his “Bill Gary’s Food Truck” felt a bit optimistic walking out of city hall.
“I’m going to be honest: it all makes sense, right? When you actually sit down and look at it from a macro level, it all makes sense,” he told WAMC. “You got to pay-to-play, right? Running a business isn't free, but beyond that… I think just having some understanding about the locations … what works, what doesn't work, where we can and where we can't [operate]… I think from there, once we establish that, whether that be approved locations, whether that be a list of where we can actually go, as opposed to just telling us ‘Hey, you can't park somewhere,’ and then [we’ll] take it from there.”
Next steps and discussions are still being decided on the council’s side.
—
Some audio for this story was provided by Focus Springfield as well as the RAD BBQ Facebook page.
