I was driving through downtown Monday morning for work, stuck in traffic, listening to the radio. They were talking about our State financial mess, budget cuts, and departmental mergers and closures when I passed this couch on the freeway. I'm thinking this must be the knew scaled down model of a WSDOT Rest Stop. Then the news came on. The Seattle City Council approved new street food vending legislation. So maybe we could deck this couch out with a coffee table, lamp, phone, WiFi, big screen TV and next to it a street vendor manning a food cart for eats. I bet it would be in high demand.
Kidding aside, I think the new street vendor rules are great news for the city of Seattle. Back in the 80's we had more food cart vendors downtown. I loved it and got to know many of the vendors. My bus stop was by the courthouse at 3rd and Cherry. Many of us jumping off the bus immediately lined right up for a coffee and bagel and got the morning street news from the Bagel Lady...
Which reminds me... The streets downtown do feel different when you have vendors outside and stationary. They get to know everyone. They ask about people and everyone gets to know them too. Like social media, everyone seems a little more friendly like we know each other, we're connected somehow because after all, we both know the Bagel Lady.
Seattle's not much on street level spontaneity or just hanging out. Normally, we walk with our eyes locked on our cell phones. The perfect shielding device to avoid any kind of contact with another human being while we're getting from A to B as quickly as possible without incident. If they do happen to look up and catch your eye, especially if you smile, their eyes quickly dart back to the safety of their phone.
I'm looking forward to seeing more vendors downtown. Rachel Kessler wrote a gret post in The Stranger on Street Food back in April. It's a fun read about her quest for the perfect hotdog and questions our city's embarrassing lack of street food variety. Casey Egan of Food Safety News posted a very informative article this morning Seattle Takes Risk-Based Approach to Food Trucks on the new legislation and the expansion of services the vendors will be able to offer. Also, you can find info about Street Vendors at the Seattle Office of Economic Development website.
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