Food Trucks Could Heat up Job Creation

by Emily Dietrich After Illinois lost almost 25,000 jobs in July, lawmakers should do everything in their power to unleash entrepreneurs. Instead of stifling job creators with onerous laws, entrepreneurs should be released into the marketplace to compete, innovate, and create jobs. The Institute of Justice Clinic on Entrepreneurship’s new grassroots campaign My Streets! My Eats! recently spotlighted...

by Emily Dietrich

After Illinois lost almost 25,000 jobs in July, lawmakers should do everything in their power to unleash entrepreneurs. Instead of stifling job creators with onerous laws, entrepreneurs should be released into the marketplace to compete, innovate, and create jobs.

The Institute of Justice Clinic on Entrepreneurship’s new grassroots campaign My Streets! My Eats! recently spotlighted an entire industry of job creators hamstrung by a slew of job squelching rules.

Food Tricks in Chicago face so many antiquated vending laws that they are virtually banned from operating in the Loop. The litany of prohibitions include: no food preparation on a truck or cart, no service within 200 feet of a restaurant, and no operating before 10am.

Laws restricting Illinoisans from accessing convenient, inexpensive food don’t just hurt our wallet and our appetite. These vending laws also hurt job creation.

Food Trucks are an example of a stifled would-be-entrepreneur.

A would-be-entrepreneur is someone willing to take a risk to provide goods and services to Illinois. Unfortunately, because of highly restrictive, exclusive, and sometimes downright unfair laws, these entrepreneurs never have a chance to compete. When the law forbids them from acting, they can’t create the jobs necessary to put Illinois’s economy back on track.

It’s not for the government to decide what you eat for lunch. Reforming Chicago’s vending laws will empower Illinoisans with choice and allow an exciting new industry to stimulate job growth.

My Streets! My Eats! says it best: “Chicago should let entrepreneurs figure out what customers want and serve it up fresh and hot!”