Food Cart Vendors Struggle to Keep a Foothold Around Philly Development

Jake Blumgart reports on the evolving legislative position of the city of Philadelphia on the matter of food carts in the city.

The story starts with the example provided by a collection of food cart vendors formerly located at a prime position near the Spring Garden Broad Street Line stop and on the same side of the street as the Community College of Philadelphia.

During construction of a new development by Bart Blatstein ("a one-story retail complex anchored by a CVS, right next to his Tower Place apartment building"), the food cart businesses were relocated to a much less prime position in the neighborhood and business has plummeted.  

"The luxury apartments brought hundreds of new residents and the new shopping brought even more street traffic — growth that could help neighborhood entrepreneurs like [food vendor Mike] Debesai. But in the case of the food vendors, the new development has generated the opposite impact," according to Blumgart.

But that is only the beginning of this story. During construction, the City Council approved legislation, proposed by City Council President Darrell Clarke, to ban street vendors on Spring Garden between Broad and 16th streets. Since the Blatstein project opened, the food vendors haven't been able to return to their previous, more lucrative spot. The food cart vendors report feeling powerless to respond to the business interests of large developers.