It is taking an absurdly long time, but Toronto is gradually moving toward allowing healthier and more exotic foods to be sold by street vendors. For now, anyone buying a quick snack from an outdoor cart has little choice beyond ordering a hot dog or sausage. That, however, could change by next spring. Earlier this week, the city's executive committee approved two pilot projects to expand street fare.
Culinary diversity is long overdue. An ill-thought-out earlier initiative would have had Toronto borrow $700,000 to buy 35 carts in order to lease them to street vendors. That idea was axed last November. Now the prospect of curbside ethnic foods is back, without the city-owned carts.
One of the pilot projects approved by the executive committee on Monday would see the licensing of some existing street vendors to provide an expanded menu of healthy treats requiring minimal preparation, including items such as salads and bagels with cream cheese. In the second pilot project, 15 operators, selected by the city, would provide ethnic foods requiring more cooking – perhaps souvlakis or samosas. Before taking to the streets, these vendors would have to buy a special cart at a cost of up to $27,000, with a built-in fridge.
The new, more sanitary carts would enhance public safety, and that's a laudable goal. But it should have been possible to meet that need and still get more diverse street food to market far sooner. After all, what's involved here isn't some groundbreaking culinary concept; in New York City, thousands of street vendors have been safely selling a wide variety of foods for years. Toronto's bland fare, by contrast, can't cut the mustard. Put simply, we need to catch up.
...Toronto Star
- Kelly McParland: Toronto's civic wieners wage war on hot dog vendors
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Every day several hundred hardy souls, many of them immigrants supporting families in the great Canadian tradition, congregate in the centre of Toronto to make a living flogging hot dogs.
They’re there because there is a demand for them. They pay a licence fee, they provide a service, there is plenty of competition to keep them honest. And the city of Toronto, in its infinite wisdom, is dedicated to making life as miserable as it can for them.
It would be hard to think of a group of individuals that more clearly represents the “hard-working Canadians” NDP leader Jack Layton invoked in just about every utterance he issued during the recent federal election. They work ridiculous hours: nights, mornings, weekends, holidays -- pretty much whenever there’s a crowd, or the prospect of one. If it snows, they work; if it rains, they work; if it’s freezing, they work; if it’s sweltering, they work. They perch on the sidewalk behind a little metal cart containing a hot grill, with stacks of buns in plastic bags and a cooler jammed with cold soda, flipping an array of wieners on the grill. It’s hardly a glamorous living, it doesn’t pay a fortune, and it’s hard, tedious work.
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