Congratulations to Lex Alexander, owner of 3Cups in Chapel Hill, who is calling out the regulation-happy Chapel Hill town council over its treatment of food trucks. I wish him luck in getting council members to move away from their complex and detailed regulatory scheme that has earned the town its anti-business reputation. From the Chapel Hill News (emphasis is mine):
“I travel a lot and keep up with what is going on with new food trends and … one of the hottest new trends is food trucks,” Alexander said in an interview. “Chapel Hill is a very forward and a head of the curve in the food world. … Banning food trucks is shortsighted [and] thwarts the young people’s entrepreneurial spirit which we desperately need here.”
Alexander is asking the council to reconsider a part of the town code that heavily regulates food trucks and where they may park. He has plans to bring food trucks into vacant spaces near his cafe and retail shop and says food trucks would bring vibrancy back to abandoned lots or retail space, like the site of the former movie theater in the Village Plaza Shopping Center on Elliott Road.
Meantime, in Orange County, a cooking school is suing the county over its regulatory enforcement.
Could it be that area entrepreneurs have finally had enough of the oppressive hand of government on their businesses?
Meantime, Carolina Journal’s Sara Burrows reports on the mobile food truck phenomenon and how Raleigh views these entrepreneurs.
