JeffDowntown
Senior Member
- Joined
- May 28, 2007
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lol, when did Denver become a concrete wasteland? It's obviously not anywhere near the density of Boston, but concrete wasteland paints it as some hideous place, which is certainly isn't. I do agree that the density makes it easier to deploy food truck here vs Boston, but I think there are other reasons you see such a gap between a place like Boston & Denver. One stark difference is the number of breweries here vs Boston. I count 24 total in Boston, Cambridge, Somerville, Everett, Chelsea and Malden on this map (https://craftbeerboston.com/breweries-map/), but Denver has 29 in its central neighborhoods alone, and something like 50-60 in the city proper (http://denverbreweryguide.com/breweries.aspx). Furthermore, the bulk of those are taprooms-only with no food, which is more of a recent-phenomenon in Boston if I'm not mistaken (didn't Blue Laws require any place that serves alcohol to also serve food or something like that?). Boston can definitely catch up in this area, as the Boston area is producing some of the best beer in the world.
Craft breweries & Food Trucks generally cater to younger crowds, and these days the younger crowds like to be in more urban areas...so while Denver certainly isn't Boston when it comes to urbanity, a lot of these food trucks are principally operating out of urban areas. Breweries simply carve out some parking spots in front of their place and let the trucks park there. There's no reason something like that can't be done in Boston.
The biggest problem I see is the horrific license & permit restrictions. The average cost of licenses & permits on that list is $1,864...Boston is $17,066!!!!! The next most expensive is Seattle at $6,211, nearly 1/3 of the cost! People running food trucks are often young, cash-strapped individuals. $17k is a massive barrier to entry and I can't see how it makes any sense in any world that it's literally 10x more expensive to obtain these permits than in other major cities. Can anyone explain this?
Concrete Wasteland was merely noting that places like Denver and Houston have lots of big wide avenues running across the city (usually in a grid). It is probably overly harsh.
Yes, the licensing issues in Boston are a bit insane.