Why Local Regulations May Matter Less Than We Think: Street Vending in Chicago and in Durham, North Carolina

Abstract

Regulating food trucks and street vendors is a policy issue facing many cities across the U.S. This paper compares the street vending regulations in Chicago, IL and Durham, NC, cities which have pursued opposing approaches. Chicago, IL maintains a strict policy, while Durham has a liberal policy towards the sale of street foods. Despite the regulatory variation, similar inequities among groups of street vendors exist. Namely, both cities have a set of gourmet food trucks that operate in the central business district and gentrifying neighbourhoods, and a set of immigrant vendors that are excluded from these spaces. Regulation, therefore, cannot be credited with reducing inequities in the bifurcated labour practices of the street vending industry. Rather, variation in regulation is found to have minimal influence on the practices of street vendors across the two cities. Therefore, changing regulations from restrictive to liberal is an imperfect solution, contrary to the findings of much of the literature. Instead, structural inequities between vendors should be addressed.