You might want to check with, oh, just about every other country in the world, to see if food carts/vendors/hawkers/etc. are a “passing fad”. The only reason it seems unusual here in Portland, and therefore might possibly be misconstrued as “a fad,” is because so many U.S. cities have adopted such arcane and anti-competitive laws when it comes to this brilliant and economical form of food service. Something I bet/hope will change as other cities take note of their success under Portland’s relatively sane/liberal approach to the idea.

Most American cities have underused, otherwise unfortunate urban parking lots, and cart “pods” offer an economical, almost immediately-implementable way to return life and use to these otherwise urban-life-deadspots. No, not every cart in Portland will survive, just like not every restaurant will. But as something the rest of the world has shown can become an integral part of local culture and economics, some form of low-rent, direct cook-owner-to-customer relationship creating form of serving great food at reasonable prices will always exist.

Can we infer you’re in the brick-and-mortar restaurant biz?

Even assuming that your stats are correct, wouldn’t the # have to drop 100% for the question to be moot?

As someone who regularly writes on and follows food safety issues, “about” 31 cases in 2009, in a city of almost 600,000 people and region of over 2.15 million, is positively infinitesimal when one considers the bigger picture.

And in case you were wondering–yes, people have gotten sick from eating at local food carts in Portland. In 2009, about 31 cases total were reported. Health inspectors routinely fail food carts here, cite them, and return to find they’ve failed again.

Grow up.

This post was mentioned on Twitter by skylark64: This sucks. Why you can’t bring your own container to the food carts: http://tr.im/LAN0 So much for doing my part to save the environment….