Ottawa Street Food Petition [Food/Vendor]

2012 Mar 21
Hello Ottawa Foodies!

Jonathon Lomow created a fantastic petition for Ottawa street food last year. It bolstered more than 1000 signatures and started going strong again this year.

Unfortunately, after speaking with a member of City Council, I learned that the petition was missing certain information that prevented an “official” receipt of the petition.

I have created a new one that covers all needed information to bring it to council.

If you're so inclined, a signature would be much appreciated.

www.thepetitionsite.com

As well, if there is something you think should be added, removed or changed please do let me know. I am by no means a regular petition writer, nor a terribly politically inclined person so any help or advice is appreciated.

2012 Mar 21
Signed!!!

2012 Mar 21
Thank you, Chopper!

2012 Mar 21

Gouda .... Did your member of City Council fill you in on what Philip Powell (City manager of licensing, permits and markets) is up to ?

Here is an blog from good ol' Ronnie E. at 'The Ottawa Cynicism'.

blogs.ottawacitizen.com

It's bottom line:
".... nothing much will happen to install a test project for more street food vendors in Ottawa before 2013 — assuming council approves it at all."

... and here is a blog on the blog.
ottawa.openfile.ca

Now I'm off to Bite This . She just opened for the season. Scott St./Trailhead.


2012 Mar 21
Signed and reposted to Facebook. My councillor Keith Egli tells me that council will be considering this issue over the summer. Now is the time to bring attention, so thanks for posting that link chopper.

2012 Mar 21
Signed and sent a note and this link to my City Rep - Shad

2012 Oct 18
Someone at city hall must have listened: www.ottawacitizen.com

2012 Oct 18
"So the new rules say that vendors can’t set up within 46 metres (150 feet) of an existing “food premises,” which could be anything from a restaurant to a supermarket with a hot take-away counter."

wow. Is there anywhere downtown that isn't within 150 feet of an existing food premise?

2012 Oct 18
And Boo! to the councillors who think that more pogos and fry trucks are what we need.

2012 Oct 18
The Whalesbone guys had a similar petition going around a couple of years ago as well.

I love this city, I grew up in 20+ different places in Canada, and Ottawa has become one of my favourite places, but I still shake my head sadly when bureaucracy and outdated rules get in the way of common sense.

A few years ago Vancouver had a similar issue with the amount of hot dog vendors. Rather than just ceasing to give out vendor licenses, or putting prohibitve rules on where vendors could operate they said "Only unique food vendors with a strong business plan and creative offering will be granted a new license." Or something similar.

IMO Ottawa is notorious for the exact opposite approach. Teh city tries to jam cultural activities or gentrification down our throats with new rules and by-laws rather than letting it happen organically.

Not food related but Lebreton Flats is a good example. If the NCC had left it alone, you'd see the area slowly start to get depressed as the industrial buildings got too expensive to maintain, and the row housing started to deteriorate slowly things would become vacant, than the arts community moves in...Then the rich people follow the artists, and by now we'd have a vibrant little arts district complimented by turn of the century row houses. (A La Distillery District in Toronto or Coal Harbour in Vancouver.)

But instead, the NCC saw the area starting to change, decided they would control that change, now 60 odd years later, one condo, one museum and A lot of unused land.

Sorry for the rant, I know we live in a bureaucracy heavy city, and that having 3-4 differne tlevels of government trying to have a say gets tough, but these kind of controlling decisions really agrivate me..

2012 Oct 18
While i agree with you on the bureaucracy the other major thing is people don't want change new things scare people off for what ever reason.

2012 Oct 18
little sidenote to EnglishFoodie's comments about Lebreton - the empty land is so toxic that it's not cost-effective to build anything there. So you can technically blame the NCC, but there's no development there for a good reason.

2012 Oct 18
Good point Englishfoodie, Lebreton Flats should of got one thing only and that is the Scotia Bank. by now we would of had a Subway in place and restaurants and bars would make good money from fans driving 5 minutes to market and around...

2012 Oct 19
I'm just hoping they don't stick a casino there. :p A concert venue there would be fantastic -- downtown, near all the hotels, great access to transit and the other side of the river, restaurants, etc.

I avoid going to concerts at Scotiabank Place because I can't be bothered to pay the parking $$ to end up stuck in traffic both ways. :p And SBP is walking distance to a grand total of nothing.

2012 Oct 19
Sorry this is a pet peeve of mine...Bugs me when people complain about SBP's location. Do people not realize that the arena is where it is because it was There, or Nowhere ??? It was built by private investors (who later went bankrupt) using borrowed money, on land they owned, against fierce opposition from the NDP government of the day and regional officials who insisted that the area was working farmland which would and should stay as such more or less forever. (Gee, who was right on that one). But it's not like that opposition included a "Hey, why don't you build it here in the middle of the city instead?" 5 levels of government own Lebreton and they can't even agree on how to cut the grass. There was no way the rink could have gone there, unless it was built BY government, and we know how much appetite there is for such spending, then and now (never mind the multi-jusidictional issues and negotiations that would have been needed...) We are lucky to have SBP at all, in fact it was quite a coup by Firestone, Leeder, Sexton, Bryden and the rest of the early Senators ownership and management to get the team and rink.

Ok rant over... back on topic, I think the "menu committee" or whatever the city is proposing is going too far. Let market forces determine what will be sold, not city councillors!

2012 Oct 19
But the whole purpose of the changes is to provide new options correct? French fries and hot dogs are cheap and popular. That's why there are so many now. I think we miss the whole point if the city gives out a few dozen more permits to chip wagons.

2012 Oct 19
I thought i heard on the news this am that 20 more street cart/truck food permits were being issued. Anyone know more?

2012 Oct 19
Yes, somewhere above there's a link to the ottawa citizen article confirming it

2012 Oct 22
From the article:

"[T]he new rules say that vendors can’t set up within 46 metres (150 feet) of an existing 'food premises,' which could be anything from a restaurant to a supermarket with a hot take-away counter. A restaurateur who sees a potential symbiotic relationship with a great vendor can waive that restriction, though."

You heard it here first, folks. The 150-foot provision won't be enforced, unless either the food truck or the brick-and-mortar restaurant is run by a stupendous ass-hat.

2012 Oct 22
In the US we kept seeing foodtrucks that are essentially marketing tools for restaurants, along the lines of sending a truck out to sell one or two signature items that would prompt satisfied customers to dine at the restaurant, ie: a taco truck that works for a Mexican restaurant, a burger truck for a steak place, etc.

Am curious to see whether than approach catches on here.

2012 Oct 22
OSoloMeal That would in fact be great marketing for the restos. I recently liked "East India Company spices" on facebook and noticed they posted a comment to that effect:

East India Company Spices

October 16 via mobile.

Very excited to be attending a meeting this Thursday at Ottawa city hall regarding food trucks and street vending. Happy the city is re-opening the Discussion. Hopefully we will get a spot for next summer!

2012 Oct 23
Pasta Lover, there's a meeting this Thursday? I thought the meeting was last Thursday. What meeting are you talking about?
BTW the council votes tomorrow on the report and bylaw changes submitted by the licensing group.

2012 Oct 23
Food really does not excite me but for some reason i really like this idea.

2012 Oct 23
spud guy That post was made last Tuesday (October 16th) so it would have been posted before last Thursday's meeting. So they were probably referring to the meeting you are thinking of. I'm keeping my fingers crossed and hope that council votes in favour of more street vendors and more variety.

2012 Oct 23
Thanks PL for the clarification.

It's a move in the right direction, to release more spots on city property, ie. the streets, etc.

As for variety, that will be dictated by the city's panel.

My question is, what is stopping the existing trucks (chip trucks, etc.) from serving more variety and interesting food? Is it costs/profit? Risk? Pre-conceived ideas from the public? Correct me if I'm wrong, but the city don't presently dictate that the existing trucks/carts should serve hot dogs and fries, etc.?
There is certainly a push from the public for more variety.

Tomorrow's the day!

2012 Oct 23
Following from upthread, it would be unfortunate if all the passes were grabbed up by existing restaurants, since part of the beauty of food trucks (if FOOD ST and D3 on the Food Network are anything to go by) is that entrepreneurial chefs can dish up their creations without needing the financial resources that a restaurant requires.

I don't begrudge the existing restaurants anything and from what i saw in SF and LA (and recently Mtl) there is clearly a demand for this, but i'd like to see the indy side of the food truck equation grow in this city.

2012 Oct 23
spud guy I believe the purpose of the panel is to ensure we get a variety of food trucks not just hot dogs and sausages. I know it seems draconian but at least it's a step in the right direction IMO...

OSoloMeal In previous years the tulip festival had various food vendors set up at the international pavillion and I believe they were all operated by local restaurants. I enjoyed the experience since it gave me a chance to sample offerings at some restos I might not otherwise go to. On the other hand already established food trucks like Stone Soup Food Works and Bite This seem to be doing well for themselves. Even the Thai food truck on Lisgar always seems to have a line up. Then there are food trucks like B. Goods who seem to have a niche market. As they say variety is the spice of life...

I haven't been to Montreal in awhile since I no longer have family there. Do they have food trucks now?!?

2012 Oct 23
I'm told the Mtl foodtruck scene is booming tho i haven't seen it myself.
During the summer there was a location on Sunday pms where most of them gathered for an open air food truck festival thing that was apprently decadent in a quebecois/roman orgy of food sort of way only with less nudity and biere.

From what i've seen/tasted of Relish, Stone, Bite This, and Trailerpork Boys here in Ottown, we have the local talent to make for more awesome. I'm just hoping they come out to play and the city gives them the chance.

2012 Oct 23
OSoloMeal That food truck festival sounds awesome - I will definitely have to make it to Montreal one of these days even if it's for that festival alone. Apparently Montreal used to have food trucks many moons ago but Jean Drapeau (mayor of Montreal in the 60's) banned them - not sure why... Glad to hear they are making a go of it. Hopefully Ottawa will follow suit.

2012 Oct 23
Ive attended the food truck gathering in Montreal and what a delight...its every first friday of each month at the Olympic parc (in the parking) i went in July and they were starting to get more trucks coming in...unfortunetaly i missed the truck that serves all kinds of Tartares...however i sampled very good gourmet sandwiches from La Mangeoire truck and very fresh tacos from the Grunman 78 truck. They were actually filming eat street in August. The line ups are crazy...

If you guys want to catch the trucks during summer, they are usually parked at Parc Emilie Gamelin downtown.

We definitely have the potential to hold similar events like they do in MTL.

2012 Oct 25
Wow, I hope Ottawa's street food scene grows from this. I'd love food truck options other than chips. :)

If anyone on this forum is interested in being part of that, there is some good information out there from people who have organized for street food in other cities. My knowledge is mostly from the U.S. West Coast. Not sure if any of this is useful to any of you, but it's interesting stuff anyway.

There's this great festival in San Francisco: www.sfstreetfoodfest.com/ which is associated with this great conference: www.sfstreetfoodfest.com (I went to both in 2011 but missed this year). The organizing NGO, La Cocina, www.lacocinasf.org/, is basically an incubator for small food businesses, mostly run by low-income women from immigrant communities.

Also lots of resources from Seattle, Portland, and NYC, but again not sure if any of this is helpful here in Canada.

2012 Oct 28
"[T]he new rules say that vendors can’t set up within 46 metres (150 feet) of an existing 'food premises,' which could be anything from a restaurant to a supermarket with a hot take-away counter. A restaurateur who sees a potential symbiotic relationship with a great vendor can waive that restriction, though."

I wish this specified OPEN 'food premises, as parking near a closed one in their off hours shouldn't make a difference to them.

2012 Oct 28
Not only do the new vendors need to have their menus approved by the city, but any changes to the menus as well.

I know it's to encourage diversity from hotdogs/sausages/fries ... But what happens when customers demand a food which the city won't pass ?

Over regulation killed the pilot project in Toronto ... hope it doesn't happen here.