We’ve all seen food trucks getting ticketed for over-staying their welcome in a 2-hour parking space. It has been recognized as a cost of doing business, or a de facto tax on food trucks. DCist has a fine piece of reporting giving us a glimpse of what happens to some trucks that rack up too many of those parking tickets.
It does highlight the fact that the proposed new DC food truck regulations would fix this issue by allowing DC food trucks to park in a spot as long as their parking is paid, except for dessert trucks which would still have to move on after 10 minutes if no line is formed. The public comment period has ended for the proposed new regulations, and we expect the DC gov to make some changes before they are presented to City Council. The sooner, the better, because the DC vendor sales tax act goes into effect on Oct 1, 2012.
I’ve seen truck owners with time on the meter, walk up to a meter, add time to that meters, and then walk back to the truck only for parking enforcement who were watching, walk over to the meter then cite the truck, slapping the ticket under the wipers while the truck’s crew is working. I have witnessed this on several occasions over the past six months, and always at Farragut.