On Thursday, the City Council voted to lift a decades-old ban on food carts with an ordinance that allows vendors to get a license and sell legally the 50,000 meals a day they're now selling in violation of the ban. To operate legally, vendors must pay $350 for a license and pay sales taxes on what they sell.
Vendors must prepare their food in a commercial kitchen and once they hit the streets, they must move their carts at least about every two hours. An estimated 2,000 vendors operate in the city today and the ordinance is expected to increase the number and the proponents say it could generate as much as $8 million for the city.
