This morning I parked at a metered spot behind one of DC’s famous food trucks–Seoul Food, specifically. It too was legally parked.
It always warms my heart to see them, because District residents have so enthusiastically embraced them, and they symbolize the best of our entrepreneurial spirit. The thing was, though, that I was in Arlington, not D.C.
While Seoul Food’s website states that “Seoul Food has started serving in Arlington,” it leads me to wonder how much of this is a matter of expanding their customer base, or whether they are doing it out of necessity because of efforts in many quarters to kill the baby in the cradle with new taxes and regulations. Does anyone know if D.C. food trucks serving less often within the bounds of the District is a trend?
I understand the intentions of those who are trying to tax and regulate in ways the food truck operators disagree with, even though I find most of those intentions misguided. As I have served on the ANC, I have taken many positions that are essentially along the lines of “we all need to play by the rules,” and if we don’t, then unfairness and chaos ensue.
But I also believe those rules should make sense, and they should encourage–not discourage–entrepreneurship and economic development in the District of Columbia. And worst of all, rules should never be designed as incumbent-protection schemes. Another innovative, new entrant on the D.C. scene, the car service Uber, is facing similar problems.
Public policy is ill-served if changes in technology or the way services are delivered to the public cause policymakers to hammer square pegs into round holes, so to speak, rather than dealing with new issues in novel ways.
By the way, the food smelled terrific, but I was still full from breakfast.