Montreal is one of the few major cities in the world where food vendors are not permitted to sell cooked food to people on the street even though that is what people like. Most everywhere else in the world street vendors provide really fast 'fast food' which is often of a far higher quality than that available in nearby fast food restaurants. For very many people, the choice between eating in fast food chain outlets or buying good quality, reliable, often better tasting and usually more nutritious food, in the street is a no-brainer.
The person responsible for creating Montreal's sorry anti-street food situation was ex-Montreal mayor Jean Drapeau, a cleanliness nut who wanted everything to look neat and tidy and didn't want the sidewalks polluted with eyesore' commercial activity. It was he who instituted the ban on on-street commerce and drove away th e popular c hip wagons' and it was he who also outlawed newspaper sales boxes from the sidewalks.
People, however, like bustle and lots of things happening on the street. Years ago on the beautiful Greek island of Hydra, I witnessed the police chief temporarily banning the fishermen from washing and drying their barrels and nets on the harbour front, near the cafs, because he thought it looked messy. Fortunately, calmer heads prevaile d and he was convinced to reconsider because these picturesque activities were among the mo st popular for the camera-toting tourists.
Unfortunately, in Montreal local officials a n d politicians often choose not to listen to common sense. When, from time-to-time, the on-street food vendor question resurfaces they fall back on the tired old argument that this would create unfair competition with nearby restaurants which, after all, have to pay all sorts of taxes. However, the obvious flaw with this objection is that the city can easily level the competitive playing field by setting the price of on-stree t food permits at competitive levels - some cities even hold auctions for the best sidewalk spots.
T he other favourite objection to on-street food vendors is that their carts will probably be less hygienic than restaurant kitchens and that the public health would be put at risk. However, this has not been the experience in the rest of the world and food carts are not only easier to inspect than kitchens but, if necessary, they could be more easily shut down since new regulations to allow them could contain provisions to that effect. Indeed, you can't hide a dirty food cart counter from the public while a dirty restaurant kitchen is not usually open to public inspection.
Street bustle and activity attracts people and attracts more trade which in turn creates more employment and enables more people to earn money and to thus to buy more food in restaurants and from on-street vendors. Tourists especially like to see lots going on, on the street and any new attraction that helps to increase the number of tourists will lead to more money being spent in our city and more employment being created.
Prior to 1776 and the publication of Adam Smith's 'The Wealth of Nations' which set the groundwork for the modern understanding of economics (coinciding with that irksome war of independence to the south) it was excusable to follow the prevailing 'mercantilist' cant and believe that trade was finite and fixed in nature and that, since it could not grow it should be protected from competition. Basically, the story went, in order to increase your own trade you had to take some away from someone else. Two-hundred-and-thirty-one- years later Montreal municipal authorities seem to be continuing a 'mercantilist' rearguard action by trying to limit commercial competition in the forsaken belief that new business for one means less business for another.
Which brings us back to the issue of on-street food vendors and their potential for increasing both amenity and trade for everyone. People like street food vendors, not only because they add colour and flavour to the street but also because people have different lifestyles and not everyone wants to stop and eat in a restaurant or a fast food joint. In effect, street vendors add an additional layer to the food delivery network meaning that a new customer group is created with the result of creating more business for everyone - much as competition and diversity do in other businesses.
Street vendors also help to make the streets safer. In Jane Jacobs' most respected work on city living - The Death and Life of Great American Cities - she concludes that the safest part of any city is where there are most people on the street and that the most dangerous - the places where even the police fear to go - are those where the streets are deserted. On-street food vendors add to public security by creating the incentive for more people to spend more time on the street and the vendors themselves provide an additional level of on street surveillance.
In New York City, I recently came across the perfect illustration of how street vending of food can be in everyone's interest while both creating employment and expanding trade. Crawling through evening rush hour traffic to get out of New York via the Lincoln Tunnel I was delighted to encounter a legal food vendor on the centre median strip selling fast food to home going commuters. Nobody complained, no restaurant lost out to unfair competition and somebody had a small business which would not otherwise have existed.
I propose that it is time to move forward on this issue and to finally allow outdoor food vendors. If you agree, call Montreal Mayor Grald Tremblay's office at 514-872-3101 and tell him to get on with it.
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