Beth Kregor is the director of the Institute for Justice Clinic on Entrepreneurship at the University of Chicago Law School. She & the IJ Clinic have been organizing informational events and providing information and resources in order to help fight Chicago’s oppressive legislation. She gave this testimony at the 7/19/12 public hearing at Chicago city hall in regards to proposed amendments to the food truck legislation.

It was so compelling that, after she finished, she was asked by Chairman Mitts to send in her transcript. We asked her if we could share it with you as well.

Kregor mentioned that this is not 100% accurate as she ad-libbed a bit. We think it’s about 98% accurate

Chairman Mitts and members of the Committee,

Thank you for allowing all of us to testify today.

My name is Beth Kregor. I am the Director of the IJ Clinic on Entrepreneurship at the University of Chicago Law School. I advocate for the little businesses that built Chicago, especially those who are trying to start a new business with a small budget.

I study the effects of regulation on entrepreneurship. I study how the laws that specify exactly how businesses should operate can freeze the business world in time and make it very difficult for the creative, innovative entrepreneurs to break in. And yet, the statistics show that the creative entrepreneurs who do something different, who draw consumers to a new business model, are the very people who create the most jobs in our economy. If you want Chicagoans to create jobs, you have to let them start new businesses that shake things up a bit.

I understand the temptation you face to preserve the status quo. It’s easy to focus on the established, traditional businesses like restaurants and think of them as constituents who need your protection. But remember that the restaurants are asking you to protect their financial interests, and the food trucks are asking you for freedom. In this country, freedom trumps protectionism every time.

If you decide where the food trucks are allowed to operate, you deny food trucks the right to experiment, to move around and find out what locations work best for them, and you are making it impossible for them to build thriving businesses. If you squelch the food trucks to preserve the status quo, who knows what future you are denying Chicago? You may be cutting short the career of the next Rick Bayless. You may be shutting down the next Vosges Chocolates before it begins. It’s impossible to know.

It’s impossible to look into the future, but we can look into the past and learn from it. 115 years ago, your predecessors were faced with a situation kind of like yours. Back then, the department store was just emerging as a new business model, and the grocers and the general stores did not like the competition. So your predecessors passed a law saying department stores couldn’t sell products that were traditionally sold by grocers and general stores. We can imagine how the City Council of the time might have felt like it was serving its constituents, the businesses that had served Chicago so well for so long, the cornerstones of Chicago’s business community. But we know with hindsight that stunting the growth of department stores would have been a terrible thing for Chicago.

Thank goodness, the Illinois Supreme Court struck those laws down, because they had nothing to protecting the public. If the City Council had successfully restricted the department stores in Chicago from developing their new business model to its full potential, if the city had decided which businesses should sell which items to which customers, just think what we would have lost.

Chicago would not have been a major tourist destination for people from all over the Midwest who came to shop in the city’s unique department stores. Marshall Field would not have become who he was, nor John G. Shedd who took over for Marshall Field. Would we have a Field Museum or a Shedd Aquarium? The Sears stores would not have developed a new twist on the department store. Would have a Sears Tower? And perhaps most frightening for the foodies in the room, we would never have had the Frango Mint, if the Supreme Court did not strike down laws saying department stores could not sell food.

Please take this lesson to heart today. Do not restrict the potential of a new business model simply to preserve the status quo. If you do that today and prohibit food trucks from serving customers near restaurants, you could be stunting the growth of Chicago’s culinary reputation and tourist appeal. If you do it repeatedly, by writing laws that protect the established way of doing business and outlaw the newcomers, you will shut down the entrepreneurial spirit of this city and stunt the growth of Chicago’s economy. Please resist the temptation.

A smidgen over a year ago, I chased down 5411 Empandas by Harpo Studio for my first food truck experience. A coworker had told me about them, and we fumbled our way through finding the stop and checking their ETA on Twitter, then cheered along with a small group of 4 other people waiting to see the big baby blue truck roll up. Less than a week after, I was sprinting down Fulton in a freezing fall day behind another blue truck: Flirty Cupcakes. I was hooked.

One year ago today, along with help from family and friends, I launched FoodTruckFreak.com. I wanted to create a space for fellow food truck devotees to find the information they want about all the trucks in Chicago. One year and 156 blog posts later, I have a lot of great memories that never would have happened if it weren’t for this site and all the wonderful people I met as a result of it.

• One afternoon Samich Box made a special delivery rolled up to my office in a deserted area of the meatpacking district and shared enough samiches for the whole office as they were awaiting their license. They made me a rockstar around the company that day.
• I have many a story that involve sharing a cocktail (or two…) with food truck owners, but there’s somethings even a blogger won’t share
• So many Thursday evenings in the summer spent grazing (or tapeando) around Ethyl’s
• Googling for hoooours to find any information about that Mexican truck everyone was talking about but didn’t know the name of. They know the name now (very well): La Adelita Truck.
• Shuffling over to Clinton & Lake during the maiden voyage week of The Schnitzel King this past fall, and seeing a festive turkey perched proudly atop the little wagon.
• Noshing on my first bahn mi (ever!) from Duck N Roll and dining together at Chen’s on a cold night (there’s a pattern developing here…), talking about being Loyola alums and what we hoped to see change (in legislation) for Chicago trucks
• Brown Bag was the only truck that regularly came a few blocks from where I used to work. I feared withdrawal when I switched jobs, but the stars aligned and now I only have to go half a block for my weekly Brown Bag. Also, I attempted to get brisket a good 6 times before the universe would allow me to have it. Long story (ask me sometime).
• I started going to one truck so often and loving one thing so much, I have a “regular” order. Whenever Laura form Cupcakes for Courage sees me, she informs me of the availability of sprinkle-colored cupcake balls. I still maintain that there is an addictive substance in those babies.
• Meeting up with other area food truck trackers (Avi, Andrew, Todd) - thought our sites serve the same purpose and in most cases would be a reason we might not come together, it was the reason we did. We all share the same love for food trucks (and nerdy techy ways)
• The day Nancy Loo and Rowena Li interviewed me for WGN was a proud one. Not gonna lie, it was something my 10-year-old-self hoped my older self would do at some point.
• Spending 2 hours on the phone talking about life and trucks with Lupita of Sweet Ride shortly after I met her
• The Guidette sandwich from Slide Ride. I loved that Guidette almost as much as I love the prego Jersey Shore one.
• Trying a dandelion naanwich from gaztrowagon. This one was of many culinary firsts for me that stretched me out of my comfort zone, and I’m glad they did.
• When Phil Foss opened El Ideas while he was running Meatyballs Mobile, a friend and I snagged resos the first week or two they were opened. To this day, it remains one of the most memorable experiences ever. From start to finish, it truly was an experience. The food (one dish in particular) was reminiscent of a meal I had at Arzak when I was living in San Sebastian. Embarassing anecdote: it was also the first time I tried fish and seafood. Another long story. Well worth it.

If I didn’t mention you here, other awesome truck owners, it’s likely because it’s 2am and I’ve been working on fighting the legislation for 6 hours straight so my brain’s a bit fried. There are so many other amazing experiences that meeting the truck owners and the readers of this lil blog have afforded me, if I named all of them this would quickly turn into a tome. I thank each and every one of you from the bottom of my heart for your support and lovin’ over this past year.

If you told me a year ago that the site’s birthday would fall smack dab in the middle of one of the most momentous weeks in Chicago food truck history, I would have high-fived you and asked you read my palm. The timing is crazy (awesome).

Thanks for everything food truckers & fellow food truck freaks. Now, go win/eat some sweet treats to celebrate, generously provided by Cupcakes for Courage, Flirty Cupcakes, and Baby Cakes. Click here to win the sweet stuff: https://woobox.com/gfb4tk Winnin’ starts at 9am CST.

It’s go time. These next 7 days are fundamental in the fight for our rights as consumers and to give a big theoretical hug to the food trucks we love so much. Why, you say? Glad you asked. The public hearing on this ordinance is on the 19th. Before that meeting, the mayor and aldermen have time to listen and absorb, learn and understand. We elected them to do that and then act in the best interest of those who voted for them (not those private interest groups that are holding their feet to the fire). Here’s how you can help accomplish that:

1) Show up to the public hearing at city hall on Thursday 7/19
You don’t have to speak (verbally); your presence will speak volumes. It’ll tell the city you want change in food truck legislation. The meeting’s at City Hall (121 N LaSalle St) at 11 a.m. Do you want to unleash a passionate (>2 minute) story about why you are fighting for this? Do eet.

2) Sign the petition to eliminate the 200 foot distance ban.
Unless the Mayor and Alderman want to invite us out to lunch, they don’t get to choose where we eat. As consumers, it is our choice where we spend our money when lunchtime (and breakfast, and dinnertime) roll around. The 200 foot ban keeps food trucks hidden in nooks and crannies where we can’t find them; that’s not fair to food truck entrepreneurs and it’s not fair to us. Oh, and it’s unconstitutional for the government to protect the interests of one business model over another. On top of that, regulating this unnecessary distance ban would take buckets of taxpayer money to only feebly enforce.

3) Today, July 12, is food truck day - go to the streets and eat!
Go to food trucks for lunch (there’s a little incentive in it for the first 19 people at participating trucks) and show up at the rally at Fischman’s Liquors (6-9pm, 4780 North Milwaukee Avenue). Why 19 treats at each participating truck? Because July 19th is the date of the public hearing, the day where we have our final opportunity to plea with our alderman to do what’s right by their constituents, the taxpayers, the unemployed, and food truck entrepreneurs (who, bt-dubs, are also citizens protected under the same constitutional rights as the rest of us).

Change can happen. It is happening already. We have seen promising movement already, now we just need to address the teensy weensy issue of the 200ft distance restriction. With this change, there will be no cupcakes-are-more-criminal-than-weed fines. With this change, fewer of us will have to walk many blocks on blistery winter days or sweltering summer afternoons to get a bite to eat. With this change, the dollars we clench in our hands come mealtime are truly ours for the first time in over 20 years.

Oh, and with this change, our taste buds will more frequently do the happy dance.

Tonight Chicago’s City Council held a meeting in regards to food truck ordinances.

Overall, it sounds like it was a very productive meeting. I know I know, that’s what people generally say if they have nothing else good to say about a meeting. However, the fact that it was a productive meeting is really good news (the best we’ve had in a long while). We hear that it was a very heated discussion.

Here are some key takeaways that were livetweeted (prodominantly by @twoitalians):

• Trucks will be able to cook on board, from the sounds of it though this will come with a large pricetag
• There will be designated food truck parking spaces around key neighborhoods (Lakeview, Lincoln Park, Near North, Near West, Side Loop) presumably in spots that were illegal under the 200 foot distance from brick-and-mortars law. No word yet on where these stops would be located or how they’d be regulated. Note: This is a model Boston is currently implementing. They rotate food trucks on a schedule based on those who opt in for the highly coveted spots (e.g. in front of the Boston Public Library)
• The 10am-10pm time restrictions will be removed; 24 hours!!!
• Trucks will have to have GPS units (presumably city-issued ones) so that they can be tracked by the city at all times. (We hate this one. It’s lazy, big brother-y and invasive. At first glance this looks to be unconstitutional in terms of privacy, but we could be wrong here)
• MFD (mobile food dispensary) and MFT (mobile food truck?) licenses are different: MFDs are for our cupcake trucks, which have no need to cook on board. MFTs are for the trucks that will want to cook on board. Looks like the only difference is MFD’s can’t cook on the vehicle, so we are assuming there are lesser price tags associated with these licenses.
• Max 200 MFTs will be issued. To put that in perspective, we have roughly 60 trucks on the road right now.
• They’d have to comply/have something called a “Chicago Food Sanitation Manager Certificate”

UPDATE (6/25/12 6:16pm CST): This article says that the 200ft restrictions don’t apply between midnight and 5pm. Nice try, Chicago. We see what you did there.

UPDATE (6/25/12 7:06 PM CST): Reports are calling this a “compromise.” The problem is, the thing that is being compromised while the city plays referee between restaurants and food truck owners are the constitutional rights of the food truck owners. Again, this ordinance is smoke and mirrors. The 4th amendment protects citizens against “arbitrary government interference. In today’s proposed ordinance, the city seems to be trying to help food trucks while buckling under pressure from restaurants (and potentially private interests associated with them). Are there some improvements here? Yes. Should the city be proposing legislations that are nearly impossible to enforce without infringing upon other constitutional rights to privacy (that GPS biznaz gives us the heeby jeebies)? No. Does this address the main issue, in which the city themselves is in breach of the constitution? No.

UPDATE (6/25/12 7:09 PM CST): When asked if Mayor Emanuel has seen this ordinance, no straight answer was given (according to @KristinRCasper, co-owner of Chicago Schnitzel King)

UPDATE (6/25/12 7:12 PM CST): @TwoItalians said “The question raised was how to enforce the ordinance. If your restaurant calls on me I have to produce GPS logs to the city” Ok. That’s not AS bad as the electric-dog-fence-esque map we were envisioning. That said, we still need a lawyer to weigh in on the constitutionality of this. It seems highly invasive and unjust in respect to how restaurant legislations are enforced. This ish don’t fly in NYC, LA, Miami etc. Why not? Because they don’t have 200ft bans. Because it’s unconstitutional and flat out ridonkulous. As said by @SVPofThings, “Maybe the city shouldn’t make laws they can’t enforce.” Well said. These problems wouldn’t exist if they adhered to the constitution. C’mon city, stop embarrassing us.

UPDATE (6/26/12 9:35 PM CST): It turns out we were right on the GPS front, according to @twoitalians. It will in fact be a 24/7 system that can be monitored around the clock by the city. If a restaurant owner has beef with just the concept of food trucks, they can potentially call in to report a truck if the truck is even parked to make a catering order. The GPS will support the truck owners claim, and the food truck owners have no recourse to prove otherwise (aside from getting timestamped documentation from their catering recipient…awkwardville). Also, licenses for MFTs look like they’re in the $1000 range. Yes, it’s four times current licensing fees, but not redonkulous if you ask us.

To give some perspective to the proposed fines for food trucks serving illegally (>200ft from a food retailer, which includes convenience stores), a licensed gourmet food truck in Chicago serving cupcakes 199 feet from White Hen is fined significantly more than you if you are caught with weed. Put that in your pipe and smoke it.

Also, today the mayor’s office posted their press release regarding this ordinance. The community’s response? Awesome. Looks like city hall isn’t fooling anyone but themselves (see screenshot).

As we always say, the city trampling food truck owners rights is bad enough. The side effect of that is that they are also infringing upon our rights as consumers to choose where we eat and with which vendors we spend our money. Next time you go out to lunch, especially if you’re downtown in high rises, your choice is actually dictated in a sense by the city. They removed food trucks from your vicinity in order to give you no choice but to bring food from home or buy from brick and mortar restaurants. Sucks, don’t it?

As the summer heat begins to linger for more than a literal hot minute, new food trucks are launching and taking advantage of all the hungry Chicagoans descending from their offices for a stroll and a quick lunch. Have you tried any of them yet? Comment below!

Beyond Borders Food Truck

Last week we had the pleasure of enjoying lunch from this truck. They told us they’ll be doing a farm-to-truck menu, and focusing on American comfort foods. Among those who came to the truck with us, the crowd favorite was the meatball sandwich; the dried aged beef and substantial amount of cheese sealed the deal. We were split on the chicken salad sandwich: one person absolutely loved it and another wanted less chicken and more mayo, grapes & celery.

Bombay Wraps

About a month ago, Bombay Wraps posted a message on Twitter notifying people that they’d soon be launching a food truck. Last Friday, we heard reports that they were spotted out and about. So, we can only assume that they did a test run for an impending launch. Once they’re posting their stops, we’ll be posting them here!

Chicago Cupcake

The food truck gods aligned the stars weeks back and crossed our paths with Brendan, the man behind Chicago Cupcakes, just after his purchase of the Homage Street Food truck. He knew a coworker of ours and catered cupcakes for an office birthday; he happened to mention that he was starting a food truck (admittedly, we think we creeped him out a bit when we knew his recent truck purchase had to be Homage’s- they didn’t tell us anything, we just have our eyes and ears open for which trucks are for sale!). Brendan tells us that his truck will soon be gracing the streets of Chicago.

There is something unique about Chicago Cupcake’s cupcakes: they have a crust. At the bottom of the cupcake, there is a delicious little crust that sets these little guys apart from any cupcake we’ve ever had. Our favorite was the Cookies N Cream cupcake with the Oreo crust. Heaven.

Keep an eye out at our locator for these awesome new trucks! If you’ve caught them already, comment below to leave tips for those who have yet to dine with them.

In light of the past week’s *cough* craziness, we found ourselves daydreaming about which brick-and-mortars we’d love to see gourmet food trucks from when the city fixes the food truck laws. While we love that gourmet food trucks are often the hyper-creative brain child of ambitious young chefs and we’re giddy with anticipation of the unconventional truck concepts they’ll bring us, we wouldn’t walk past a food truck from any of these restaurants:

1. Slurping Turtle: Chef Takashi’s noodle menu would make quite the slurp-worthy street food, especially when it’s less-than-warm outside (we’ll let you insert a joke about ridiculous Chicago weather here). The array of extra toppings would make the truck-side experience interactive and tailored, appealing to foodies and regular joe’s alike.

2. Vera: We fancy ourselves some tapas connoisseurs, and this place gets our vote for the best tapas in town. Our once-staples in the tapas scene have been leaning a little too much on their names that it shows in the decreasing authenticity and freshness of their tapas have been compromised. One of our former favorites has been serving chalky tortilla española and Iberian ham that looks like uncooked bacon. (Hand-to-bible this is not a backhanded response to Keef, this just really irks us and has for a while.) Then, Vera popped up on Lake Street and re-introduced us to authentic tapas made with passion and love. Cafe Ba Ba Reeba gets an honorable mention here too; their tapas are authentic and dependably delicious; a food truck from them would help us to avoid their long waits as well.

3. Lao Sze Chuan: Amazing dim sum on the go. ‘Nuff said.

4. Girl and the Goat: This may seem like and obvious choice (and it is), but it’s so hard to get a reservation at the brick-and-mortar that this could be another vehicle (ba-dum-chh) for Chef Izard to share her food with us to hold us over between brick-and-mortar visits. Side note: we’re getting purrrrdy excited about the alleged mid-September opening of her new spot, The Little Goat.

5. Kuma’s Corner: Fancy a freshly fired burger? Of course. Even if they limited their menu to 2 burgers, we imagine they’d have a steady line of drooling carnivores.

6. Roti: Yes they’re a small-medium sized chain and one of the things we love best about gourmet food trucks is the short distance travelled by the concept between the chef’s left brain and the food in our hands, however their falafels are really unique and we oft crave them, so we’ll stand by this one.

7. Thalia Spice: Soy paper-wrapped sushi and amazeballs Ya-Ya Noodles? Yes please.

8. Wishbone: We love us a good breakfast. These guys could cook up a mean breakfast on wheels.

9. Irazu: Their patacones (twice-fried green plantains with garlic oil), corn masa empanadas (very different from 5411′s), and oatmeal shake would be a few of the menu items we’d hope to see on the menu if Irazu launched a food truck. The first two items in particular would be quite amazing coming straight off the frier (though a gym sesh would be mandatory afterwards).

10. Big Star Oh wait…

Which restaurant(s) do you want to see a food truck from? Leave a comment below!