Boston Magazine: The Innovation Stops at Food Trucks

There's a discrepancy between Boston's commitment to innovation and its practice of "smothering" the local food truck industry, says Boston Magazine. In January, Eater spoke with Staff Meal co-owner Adam Gendreau about his open letter to the city and founding the Greater Boston Mobile Food Collective, both of which were intended to create more opportunities for the city's foods trucks. But Boston Magazine's Colin Kingsbury says not much has changed since then. He points to detrimental factors like a limited number of available food truck locations (11), tight regulations, and the city's habit of "trying to shoehorn them into less-profitable and desirable locations."

According to the article, the city's approach to food trucks is a microcosm of a bigger problem.

While city governments have only the most limited of tools available to conjure the animal spirits that give rise to sustainable innovation, they have entire buildings full of machinery that can kill it faster than a Predator drone.

The solution? Fill the Common with food trucks, says Kingsbury, who paints an idyllic picture of a landscape studded with mobile food vendors, picnic tables, and satisfied, value-conscious gastronomes, not unlike A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte with a backdrop of rumbling generators.

In other food trucks news, the Herald has issued letter grades for six of the city's new trucks including Paris Creperie (C-), Lobstah Love (B-), and The Chubby Chick Pea (A-).

· Why won’t City Hall help Boston’s food trucks thrive? [BM]
· Grading out the grub: Boston's new food trucks [BH]
· All food truck coverage on Eater [~EBOS~]