Posted on 10/25/2026 8:08:30 AM PDT by dynachrome
Portable food carts are an accepted fact of life in many of our major cities, and even in some small towns. For years, in the Alaska town of Talkeetna, a regular fixture on that small touristy town's main drag was the halibut taco cart. The halibut were cooked using a propane tank under the cart — until the tank exploded, breaking windows and causing damage all up and down the street. Fortunately no one was seriously hurt. But if it's a halibut taco you want now in Talkeetna, you're out of luck.
Here's the thing: The Talkeetna halibut taco cart was legal. Now, back to the lower 48. Denver, Colorado, is a city that is beset with problems, not the least of which is Democrat governance. City officials piously pronounce Denver a "sanctuary" jurisdiction, and so their population of illegal aliens has grown almost continually for years now. Some of those illegal aliens, and to be fair, some in the city legally, have shown some enterprise. Denver's Lower Downtown (LoDo) area is a typically gentrified urban district, with restaurants, bars, and shopping.
LoDo also, it seems, has a lot of unlicensed, uninspected food carts. This seems a lot like a public health crisis in the making.
(Excerpt) Read more at redstate.com ...
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Meth camp Mike and gov. poleass are improving Denver./s
There is a tension here. Total govt regulation vs freedom and responsibility.
My local hardware store has to have a permit to give free popcorn to customers. Because of the hassle, I don’t get free popcorn anymore........................
Yep. LIke the Homemade Tamales! being sold on street corners in my town. In a first-world society, food service to the public is regulated in order to ensure public safety. Street food vendors, while apparently ‘trendy’, are to me an example of how our civilization is declining. They have been given an advantage over brick and mortar restaurants that pay property taxes and are subject to periodic inspections by the Health Department.
OMG , Hotdogs falling from the sky
You think that’s bad, consider this:
According to a 2026 report, Mayor Karen Bass directed the Los Angeles Police Department to stop issuing criminal citations to unpermitted street vendors. The report cited city data showing:
~50,000 total street vendors operating in Los Angeles
<700 active vending permits issued by the city
Only 53 of those permits are for food vendors
What do you expect from a commie mayor?
Something's fishy here.
Why would the hotdog carts explode? Just for the halibut?
Hotdognado.
You got tamales? In the NYC metro areas, illegal aliens and their pre-tween children sell fruit that they stole or purchased with SNAP cards at the intersections of busy streets and highways. 95 degrees + bright sun + high humidity + no refrigeration = rapid growth of bacteria and high potential for food poisoning. Then again, anyone dumb enough to purchase illegal food from illegal aliens gets what they deserve.
Dirty hands.
Yup. After hearing what a food cart repairman said...”he would never eat from a food cart”...I decided the same.
Nogales, MX, just a stone's throw from everywhere else in CA. I don't buy 'cart food' anywhere. The signage indicates a hoped for turística customer base.
The jugged fish is halibut.
This is why we can’t have nice things.......8-(
nothing will be done unless/until someone “important” is killed or maimed, and then Denver will go after only the foodcarts operated by native-born citizens ... [the way it’s done in LA] ...
How do you know that it’s springtime in NYC???
Hot dog vendors change their water !!!
“halibut taco”
Not a chance.
“They (street vendors) have been given an advantage over brick and mortar restaurants that pay property taxes and are subject to periodic inspections by the Health Department.”
I don’t own a retail property but I can see why brick and mortar resent street vendors. The food trucks in our little town don’t have restrooms; those expensive little things are required by authorities at brick and mortar. Restrooms require janitorial costs, and supplies, and insurance and the occasional plumber - not to mention the construction costs. That is just one advantage of street vendors - there are many others.
“Most, if not all, of these unlicensed food vendors are breaking the city’s laws on selling prepared foods”
We’ve got the same problem here in the Tacoma/Seattle area. There are little food stands on a table with all kinds of different foods to sell from hot dogs to latin food to fish and crustations like lobster, crab, and shrimp some saved in ice chests with a habatchi to cook (semi) them. And they are ignored ny the government so they continue to take the possilibity of food poisoning and don’t care.
The Tacoma-Pierce County Health Department (TPCHD) has noted a massive rise in unpermitted roadside taco tents, fruit carts, and pop-up stands, with complaints jumping significantly (e.g., rising from 18 complaints to over 123 during a tracked period). As of August 31, health inspectors have closed 55 unpermitted vendors across Pierce county for 2026. Last year they closed 143 of them to show you how many there are. Problem is, the health department doesn’t know and doesn’t go looking for them. They’re not hard to find and are on specific corners almost daily year round selling something unliscenced and/or health checked.
wy69
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