Freedom, fairness for food carts in Chicago
On Sept. 24, 2015, Chicago City Council voted unanimously in favor of an ordinance to legalize food carts, giving thousands of street vendors across the city the freedom to make an honest living and opening the door for the next generation of culinary entrepreneurs.
Freedom, fairness for food carts in Chicago
In December 2014, Claudia Perez could have been arrested just for selling her tamales around her Chicago neighborhood.
But today, Claudia can make a living, support her family and sell delicious food to hungry customers without the fear of fines and citations.
Food carts are now legal in Chicago.
Momentum
For years, the policy debate and public focus in Chicago was on food trucks, which left food-cart vendors in the shadows, struggling to earn a living. Despite several attempts to organize and build a grassroots movement, the cause of food-cart legalization went unrealized. Much of this was due to the fact that food-carts vendors are primarily low-income, first-generation immigrants operating in underserved communities. Add to that a strong restaurant lobby, health and safety concerns, and an inability to measure the economic impact of street vending in Chicago, and it’s clear why the issue continued to stall.
All of that changed in less than a year when the ordinance to overturn Chicago’s ban on food carts, which had stalled, resurfaced in late 2014 and the summer of 2015.
Illinois Policy’s Managing Editor Hilary Gowins first wrote on Chicago’s food-cart ban in a Sept. 6, 2014, ChicagoNow article titled “food kiosks: good; food carts: bad.” Over the following months, she continued to write on the subject, publishing several articles on her Huffington Post blog. In November 2014, Gowins partnered with videographer Charlie Fritschner to document the lives of Chicago’s food-cart street vendors.
Fritschner and Gowins spent early mornings in the Little Village neighborhood of Chicago with the Street Vendors Association, meeting and interviewing local street vendors. The resulting short documentary, “Una mujer y su carrito,” garnered more than 1.2 million views since its release in February 2015. Messaging from the video and Hilary’s articles reverberated throughout the media, and the story picked up steam organically because Claudia’s story – and the struggles facing all of Chicago’s vendors – was so compelling.
From WBEZ to Fox 32 Chicago to Univision to the Chicago Sun-Times, every major media outlet in Chicago wrote on the food-cart campaign.
The vote
On Sept. 24, 2015, Chicago City Council voted unanimously in favor of an ordinance to legalize food carts, giving thousands of street vendors across the city the freedom to make an honest living and opening the door for the next generation of culinary entrepreneurs.
Institute experts also provided aldermen the research to show why legalizing food carts was the right move. Hilary co-authored the Institute’s economic-impact report, “Chicago’s food-cart ban costs revenue, jobs,” which showed that legalizing food carts would mean up to 6,400 new jobs and $8 million in new local sales-tax revenue for the city. Aldermen, including the ordinance’s sponsor, Roberto Maldonado, echoed this research verbatim on City Council floor.
A new day for Chicago’s food-cart culture
For Claudia, a 62-year-old Mexican immigrant who has struggled for the right to pursue her food-cart business and support her family for years, food-cart legalization is life-changing. Despite the city’s ban, Claudia’s business remained popular and steady – at its peak, she had five carts operating throughout her neighborhood. Now, she hopes to grow once again.
Food carts have long been part of everyday life in Little Village, Pilsen, Rogers Park and many other Chicago neighborhoods. These communities rally around food-cart culture – kids pick up elotes for an after-school snack, walkers grab champurrado on cool mornings and anyone looking for a delicious lunch knows vendors’ tamales won’t disappoint. People drive from hundreds of miles away to get a taste of Chicago’s food-cart fare. Now, this vibrant food culture can step out of the shadows.
Chicagoans love food carts. Now, their city laws reflect this fact.