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1 <br /> <br />By Bert Gall and Lancée Kurcab1 <br /> <br />Food trucks continue to grow in popularity throughout the country. But as the Institute for Justice <br />detailed in a recent report, some cities have responded by enacting and enforcing laws that do not <br />advance public health and safety, and serve no other purpose than to “protect” restaurants from <br />competition from food trucks.2 Arguing in favor of these laws—such as those that bar food trucks <br />from operating in popular commercial areas or that prohibit food trucks from parking within several <br />hundred feet of any restaurant—their proponents rely upon several myths. <br /> <br />Below, we list the seven most prevalent of these myths and, using facts and real-world examples, <br />debunk them. <br /> <br /> <br />MYTH #1: The presence of food trucks is harmful to a city’s restaurant industry. <br /> <br />REALITY: The presence of food trucks does not hurt a city’s restaurant industry, but <br />instead helps it. <br /> <br />Claims that food trucks spell doom for local restaurants are not only unsupported,3 but are also <br />contradicted by the experiences of Los Angeles and Austin, which have enthusiastically welcomed <br />mobile-food entrepreneurs. For example, the continued growth of the food-truck industry in Los <br />Angeles—the birthplace of the modern food truck—in no way diminished L.A.’s vibrant restaurant <br />scene. In fact, customers in a recent Zagat survey reported that they think the restaurant scene has <br />continued to improve.4 In Austin, local restaurateurs and economists generally agree that the city’s <br />robust mobile-food scene has boosted the restaurant industry as a whole.5 Citing Los Angeles and <br />Austin as positive examples, a group of restaurateurs in Pittsburgh have joined together to ask the ir <br />city to get rid of restrictive regulations that have stifled the growth of the food-truck industry there <br />because they have recognized that the “cities with the most vibrant food-truck scenes also have <br />booming restaurant industries.”6 <br /> <br />Indeed, food trucks all over the country are helping to bolster the local restaurant industry in (at <br />least) three specific ways: <br /> <br />1. Food trucks’ presence increases the number of customers available to restaurants. <br />Austin’s food trucks and food trailers are a rising tide lifting all boats in the local restaurant <br />industry; one way they have done so is by attracting more people—both new residents and <br />tourists—into the city.7 In Houston, restaurants have experienced increased business <br />generated by food trucks parking nearby and drawing more people to the restaurants’ <br />neighborhoods. It is for this reason that restaurant owners have asked the Houston City <br />Council to ease existing laws that make it difficult for food trucks to operate.8 And in Las <br />Vegas, George Harris, the owner of Mundo, an award-winning upscale restaurant in Las