'A Huge Sigh Of Relief': Temple Food Trucks Can Stay Put After Philadelphia L&I Postpones Enforcing 2015 Ordinance
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) – A fight over food trucks is in the spotlight at Temple University. Vendors who serve students on North Broad Street are frustrated about a new ordinance the city is trying to enforce.
Food trucks have been a staple at Temple University's campus since the 1960s. There are specific zones the businesses can operate.
Whether you're looking for a chicken cheesesteak, a burger or even a crepe, chances are there's a food truck on Temple University's campus that specializes in just what you're craving.
"From a cultural standpoint, it's one of the main things that attracts people to this university," Evan Kassof, a PHD student at Temple, said.
Kasoff said the food trucks are one of the reasons he decided to study at Temple's main campus.
"I was visiting the school, I went to the crepe truck and I was like – I got the Nutella strawberry banana crepe, but I was like, I need this every day in my life," Kasoff said.
But recently Philadelphia's Licenses and Inspections department decided to enforce a 2015 ordinance and notices went out to the more than 50 Temple food trucks last week.
The notice stated the trucks had to move their trucks off the streets beginning on April 29.
For local business owners like Fatima Nuredini, whose family has owned Richie's Lunch Box on Temple's campus for nearly 50 years, that could have meant potentially closing up shop.
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"You're better off not even doing it at all," Nuredini said. "You know, my mother was actually thinking of just giving up."
That is until Kasoff created an online petition asking L&I to hold off on enforcing the ordinance and pointing out that Temple-based food trucks are in a specially designated district with specific rules.
That petition has gathered more than 5,700 signatures and L&I has decided to suspend its crackdown until after discussions take place with the vendors later this summer.
"I'm so happy we can work this summer over here," Nuredini said. "A huge sigh of relief."
A spokesperson from L&I said there is no definite date set for when the discussions will take place.
It's after that proposed date, some time in the future, this crackdown could end.
