Oahu’s food trucks and lunch wagons could bid for exclusive rights to park in stalls designated for them under a bill proposed recently before the Honolulu City Council.
Such permits would provide a measure of certainty to truck owners like Island Popper’s Andrea Tournis-Vagenas from needing to stake out and vie for prime parking stalls with other food truck owners or motorists every day.
It would also make it legal for the vendors to park in metered stalls longer than the posted maximum times.
Technically, a vehicle is not supposed to park in a stall longer than a posted time, even if its owner feeds a meter throughout the day. After vendors complained about being cited by police, the city adopted a law in 2012 allowing food vendors to park for the maximum posted parking times or, when there are no limits posted, up to three hours at a time.
Bill 1, introduced by Council Chairman Ernie Martin, calls on the city transportation services director to designate areas for the stalls, and then award permits for the exclusive rights to park in them from 10:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m.
"To me, for a vendor, it guarantees some level of consistency," Martin said.
The bill does not state how long the permits would be good for, what criteria would be used to determine the location of the stalls, and who would decide where the stalls would be, as well as how many there would be.
Martin said he only wants to provide a mechanism for the stalls to become reality and that the city administration, the vendors and the public can offer their input during upcoming meetings.
The vendors have asked for the stalls in the past, Martin said, and the money would provide a new source of funds for the cash-strapped city budget.
"From the city perspective, it’s all about revenue generation," he said.
Martin said he envisioned the permitted "super stalls," which would be two standard parking stalls in length, to be in downtown Honolulu. But they also could be used in other parts of the island, including the North Shore region of his district, known for its many shrimp trucks.
The idea of exclusive stalls for food trucks and lunch wagons was first raised by the vendors when the 2012 law was being considered, he said.
THE BILL does not bar a food truck or lunch wagon vendor from operating outside the permitted stalls.
Michael Formby, the city’s transportation services director, said Mayor Kirk Caldwell’s administration is open to the idea and is willing to work with the Council on the details.
"I think some of the operators like to make sure they get to the location they like to go to every day, and to do that, they actually have to go to the location to stake it out," Formby said.
Designated locations would be particularly beneficial in areas like the Honolulu civic center, the block that includes Honolulu Hale and the Fasi Municipal Building, where there are many workers but not many eateries nearby, Formby said.
That’s the case with Tournis-Vagenas, whose gourmet popcorn business is so popular that she’s set up a 50-cent discount program for regulars who bring back reusable shopping bags.
Tournis-Vagenas tries to locate her truck on Fridays at a metered stall on Punchbowl Street fronting the state Department of Taxation office. To get that location, she said she has to arrive before 7 a.m., when parking is first allowed on that portion of Punchbowl.
"It would give me some piece of mind," Tournis-Vagenas said on Friday, noting that she had arrived late to Punchbowl Street the previous week and lost her favorite spot. "It would end the uncertainty."
She added, "I ended up going to Kawaiahao Street, which isn’t as busy."
Like some other food truck and lunch wagon owners, Tournis-Vagenas prefers to spend each day of the week in different parts of town.
She would like to bid on a permit allowing her to stay in a particular location once a week, or at least be allowed to share a five-day-a-week permit with others.
Cathy Davenport, who works at a Punchbowl area office building, showed up at Island Popper on Friday to pick up phone orders mixing variations of furikake, cheddar and butter for a co-worker and herself.
Davenport said she checks her Twitter feed on Fridays to make sure Tournis-Vagenas is at her spot on Punchbowl.
If Island Popper were at a set location, "I know a lot of people would be happy," Davenport said.
