The Central Ohio Food Truck Association is disturbed and unsatisfied by the City’s response to gun violence in the Short North and the subsequent action of limiting small businesses to operate outside of peak hours. While we recognize the importance of public safety in our city, especially within its flagship entertainment district, we reject the idea that mobile food vendors contribute to violent crime in any area, regardless of the time of day.
The mobile food vendors operating in the Short North are licensed, insured, and regularly inspected. In many ways they face more scrutiny than the bars and restaurants that they compliment. Neither the Ginther Administration nor Columbus City Council have presented any data to support the idea that food carts operating in the Short North within the hours of 12 – 2:30 a.m. have incubated violent crime in this area.
We are aware that many of the commercial and residential developers in the Short North area have voiced their opposition to Columbus City Council and Mayor Ginther to mobile food vendors operating adjacent to their street-facing properties prior to the recent episodes of street-related gun violence. We strongly believe that the executive order to limit mobile food operation to 12 a.m. is almost exclusively motivated by the concerns of these real estate developers.
Over the last six to 10 months, Columbus City Council, spearheaded by Councilmember Emmanuel Remy, have exhausted resources to address these concerns while considering the voices of dozens of other local stakeholders in an effort to adopt amicable mobile food vending policy.
After many months of discussion and compromise, Chapter 573 of the Columbus city code was amended to address these issues. These changes went into effect May 1, 2023. Only two weeks later an Executive Order has seemingly undone all of this work with the stroke of a pen. Less than a week after enacting the Executive Order, and with no notice to the public or stakeholders, Columbus City Council passed an ordinance effectively codifying the mayor’s executive order on this matter. With no defined end date, many small businesses, particularly mobile food vendors, are left to wonder what the future holds.
Mayor Ginther is asking that everyone “step up and do their part” while Council President Hardin suggests that “we all should have skin in the game” but only the microbusinesses such as food carts are being mandated to close at specific hours. Alcohol continues to flow until 2:30 a.m. from nearly every brick & mortar business in the Short North area. Undeniably, the consumption of alcohol is a larger contributor to violent crime than street food. Yet the businesses that purvey this mind-altering substance are merely recommended to close at midnight. While the control of liquor sales is left to the State of Ohio and is outside of the purview of City Council or the Mayor’s Office, there are obviously alternatives to promoting public safety that do not include restricting these licensed microbusinesses from operating during peak hours, within their peak season.
The Central Ohio Food Truck Association (COFTA) is requesting an immediate and public review of the ordinance banning food trucks from the Short North after 12 a.m. COFTA asserts that there has been a lack of due process in implementing this ordinance, and an extreme lack of clarity regarding what its “temporary” status means for our industry.
The COFTA Board
centralohiofoodtrucks.org