Lathrop’s award winning hot dog cart law

The old story goes:  A man has one good arm and a withered arm.  So he prays, “Lord, make my arm like the other one!”  In a puff of lighting, his other arm is withered.

The Lathrop hot dog cart law is an attempt to punish mobile food vendors “because it’s fair.”  The owners of stores and restaurants don’t think it’s fair someone should be able to compete with them.

The restaurants complain that they have to jump through hoops, get cumbersome permits, pay exorbitant fees and taxes, it can take years just to get a permit to operate (unless you are a big corporation with a good legal department, then it’s easy.)  So, in order to remedy this the wise council decided that the hot dog stands should be similarly burdened.

What’s wrong with this?  A few things.  First, you can’t create prosperity by restrictions on commerce!  The “job market” isn’t exactly good right now, and the last thing the city needs to do to “help people” is to outlaw their attempts to make a living.

Also, fairness is a slippery concept that mostly exists in the mind of whoever is coming up with it.  The restaurant guy is “irate” how dare that kid with the cart sell tacos or ice cream?  He’s “taking away my customers” and I had to pay all these taxes and utilities and get permits to open this restaurant – It’s not fair they whine!

But the guy on the bicycle is probably thinking “it’s not fair” he gets to sit in an air conditioned building with gas and electricity and tables and can sell all sorts of things I can’t. 

Well, what’s stopping the restaurant guy from getting a bicycle and going pedaling around the city if he thinks they have it so great?  He doesn’t because he and the push cart guy have made choices.  Each weighed the costs and the benefits and decided what was best.  Each came to different conclusions but maybe that’s just the way it is.  But the ignorant and greedy restaurant bullies, rather than accepting their own choices, whine to the City Council to do something about them.  (Whaaaaa!)

The council members who voted in favor of this asinine law have earned The Manteca Live! Horse’s Ass award.  It’s nothing personal, it’s just that it was a stupid thing to do.  So stupid that intelligent people shouldn’t even have to discuss it.

Maybe if I feel like it I’ll list the problems with the new law (it’s poorly written, poorly intentioned, and just plain dumb) in another log entry.  But for now, let me point out that it’s not just my opinion that the purpose of the law is to “burden” the food vendors, in the staff report it actually says that.  (It talks about “equity” with “other business owners.”)

I have an idea, you can read it for yourself!  (see pages 49 to 60).