Photos by Brad Rhines

by Brad Rhines

There was a heaping helping of talkin’ and even more eatin’ last night at “Let the Food Trucks Roll,” a food truck rally and symposium meant to raise awareness for local food trucks and mobile food vendors fighting for more favorable regulations in New Orleans. Those familiar with the story have by now heard the talking points: food trucks lobbying the city for more downtown access, more lenient parking restrictions, and more permits for more food trucks. To get a taste of what might  NoDef caught up with Matt Geller, a legal expert from the Southern California Mobile Food Vendors Association, to talk about the next step for promoting change in the city’s attitude toward food trucks.

Based in Los Angeles County, Geller has worked around the country helping organizations like the recently founded New Orleans Food Truck Coalition (NOTFC) find their voice. While raising awareness and mobilizing public support is essential, Geller believes the next step for New Orleans is taking the fight to city hall. NOTFC, says Geller, must “create a plan of advocacy,” making sure the city council understands their demands.

While the City Council worries that mobile food vendors create unfair competition for brick-and-mortar restaurants, Geller warns against engaging in that particular battle.

“That’s their argument,” says Geller, but “this is about consumer choice.”

Geller argues that restrictive laws foster collusion instead of encouraging competition. As an example, he points out that a city council would never protect a Blockbuster franchise threatened by the rise of Netflix, because it’s not the city’s place to “protect bad business models.”

In order to precipitate change, Geller says the coalition needs to organize their support, saying that while restaurants have “customers,” food trucks have “followers.”
“If they’re going to track you down to eat your delicious food,” he says, “they’ll send an email saying don’t interfere with my right to eat delicious food.”

It’s up to the coalition, says Geller, to harness these followers, help articulate the message, and then bombard city officials by any means necessary to ensure the message is heard. While he admits that these tactics aren’t always popular, he says they work. Geller mentioned the online petitions at Change.org as being an effective tool for reaching city leaders. NOTFC has partnered with Neighborland, a social media site promoting civic advocacy, to host their own Change.org petition, which has already gained over 1,200 signatures. According to Geller, a barrage of petitions, emails, and phone calls to city officials is one of the best ways to let leaders know that the public demands action.

Last night’s crowd proves the support is there, and now is the time for NOTFC to take advantage of the momentum, Geller said.