Truckin'

Scott Wiener Gunning For One-Block Buffer Between Food Trucks and Schools

Trucks like the new Eire Trea, specializing in both Irish and Eritrean food, could be coming near a high school near you.
Trucks like the new Eire Trea, specializing in both Irish and Eritrean food, could be coming near a high school near you.

Supervisor Scott Wiener, whose district includes one of the foodiest parts of the Mission, held a press conference this morning in support of reducing, under city law, the current required distance between food trucks and school campuses. The current ordinance means that food trucks must keep a 1,500-foot, or three-block buffer around all schools, which leaves a good portion of the city off-limits, and which has meant the clustering of trucks in the Financial District.

Wiener says this is unnecessary, especially since elementary school students aren’t even allowed to leave campus for lunch, and he’s proposing the buffer be reduced to 500 feet. “It makes sense for students to be encouraged to eat school lunches,” he says. “However, when San Francisco imposed a three-block buffer … we over-shot and undermined food diversity and choice for all San Franciscans. This legislation achieves a better balance by reducing the buffer to one city block.”

Wiener’s proposed legislation comes just a couple of weeks after a bill came before the state legislature, AB 1678, that would impose the 1,500-foot buffer statewide, and Wiener says he hopes the local ordinance will serve as a sort of middle finger to the state [Editors’ Note: we’re paraphrasing] in opposition to AB 1678.

Earlier: New Food Truck Bill Could Kill S.F.’s Street Food Scene
San Francisco Will Never Be Portland When It Comes to Street Food

Scott Wiener Gunning For One-Block Buffer Between Food Trucks and Schools