Overreacting to the arrival of a single new food cart on Warren Street, Hudson politicians started making grunting noises about limiting or even banning them altogether.
But their spastic response—something conservatives normally refer to as a “Nanny State” impulse—has already backfired. It’s created more competition, not less, by driving the lone target of their concern into a more stable setting.
Seeking shelter from the political storm, or maybe just a more appealing venue, the street cart Ponto Brasil has forged a partnership with retailer Melinda Slover to move into Lili & Loo’s well-appointed backyard space.
By pushing proprietor Steve Walsh off the street, the powers that be have actually driven his business into slightly more direct competition with conventional restaurants... because now Ponto patrons have a place to sit while they enjoy their feijoada, and will always know where to find it. And by taking such a heavy-handed and reactionary approach, City Hall has engendered nothing but publicity and sympathy for Walsh’s fledgling business.
“We have to protect the restaurants!” came the politicos’ cry, improbably fretting over the investments and tax contributions of unnamed restaurateurs who allegedly were complaining en masse. Somehow a single cart, serving cheap kebabs and coconut water, was going to put restaurants out of business whose typical bill for two people can rise to the $50-$100 range.
(Tellingly, when queried on a local business email list not a single proprietor copped to having a problem with street vendors. Publicly, nothing but support for Ponto Brasil has come from their quarter. At least some of that support may have been two-faced, as one restaurateur now professing enthusiasm for Walsh’s business had just harangued a friend about it.)
This odd new concern about the investments of main street businesses struck many as peculiar, given that City Hall here has shown little but hostility to Warren Street’s hard-working entrepreneurs. Hudson’s eateries have indeed made major investments, and contribute mightily to the tax base. But a lone street cart posed no threat whatsoever to either, as such carts operate in an entirely different price range and serves a wholly different market.
Dining destinations catering to parties of two or four or eight coming to Hudson for a sit-down dinner (featuring table service, cocktails and wine lists, busboys refilling their water and coffees, in climate-controlled surroundings out of the snow, rain or heat) has nothing to fear from a $5 street meal eaten standing up, and offered only seasonally.
Yet somehow, the same Boulevards-centric politicians who have complained for years about Hudson being too expensive were improbably inclined to shut out more affordable fare. The widespread suspicion is that perhaps a single controversial business owner known for backing Republican politicians was behind this latest Hudson teapot-tempest.
Even by Hudson standards, this was a silly episode—and I use the past tense guardedly. According to some Aldermen, Mayor Bill Hallenbeck has continued to press for action on street vendors, calling on the Common Council members to poll their constituents and brainstorm ways to address a nonexistent problem. Apparently Hudson has solved all its other issues, and now enjoys the luxury of someone who’s survived cancer to worry about their hangnails.
Paradoxically, the whiff of anti-competitive spirit from Free Market politicos has already had the opposite effect than that intended. By mid-afternoon on Saturday, his first at the new location, Walsh had sold out completely of his day’s stock.
