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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Who regulates the trucks on the National Mall?  The National Park Service or the DC government?  If the latter, don't hold your breath.  The DC Council in another spasm of "progressive" legislation basically eliminated the permit system for street vendors.  Now one sees on the street outside retailers pop-up vendor tables that sell the very merchandise that thieves just stole from the stores![/quote]

It’s the DC government. And the food trucks are also parking inside the mall. It looks and smells so [b]trashy[/b].[/quote]

I have never, in real life, encountered anyone using DCUM's favorite pejorative adjective. I guess I live in a bubble.[/quote]

How about crowded, dirty, polluted (both noise and air), unkempt and personally overwhelming. The food is not even good. It’s repetitive and expensive.[/quote]

Yes, tourist attractions typically are crowded, especially during tourist season. If I considered a place to be so awful, I would simply avoid visiting it.[/quote]

DC was doing just fine before all of these food trucks came along. It has always been a high tourist attraction, regardless of food trucks.[/quote]

DC resident here - I remember 15 years ago it was the Chinese Food Truck mafia where every single food truck was exactly the same - egg roll, pizza, hot dog, with the same sign with faded paint done by the same painter.  But at least those food trucks were relatively cheap.  And next to each one was the kitsch trailer selling cheapo shirts and hats with "DC" "FBI" "CIA" shirts.  All identical.  Now the kitsch trailers are still there but the food trucks have mostly been replaced with middle eastern dudes selling slushies, ice cream and boba tea at ridiculous prices, with no prices listed.  They also park junk cars along the routes to save themselves spaces.

That said I do routinely see police hassling them, ticketing them and on occasion towing them.  But their scam is such a big racket that they don't care about the tickets or having their junk car towed because they make more than enough by scamming tourists that tickets et cetera must have just become part of the cost of doing business.

I loved the legit food trucks that used to be downtown and would prefer to see them getting the tourist business than the scammers.  I do think Council should pass some laws to crack down on the scammers.  I think Council should at the very least require them to publicly display a price list along with requiring health inspections and displaying their permit and health inspection results.  I've walked past some of them at night when there was no generator running and when the fumes aren't covering it up, some of them do reek like spoiled milk and rancid grease and god knows what else.  Someone also suggested that there should be designated spaces and a lottery system for the vendors.[/quote]

I am the pp.  I remember those egg roll trucks too. They were repetitive. They weren’t creative but, they weren’t bumper to bumper like what I see now. I don’t mind a good food truck or several but not the quantity there are now. What I see right now is not good. [/quote]

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