NO Mayor Vetoes Food Truck Expansion; JP Councilwoman Sheng Wants More Food Trucks For Fat City

In what could be described as “A Tale of Two Cities”, or, more accurately, “A Tale of Two Parishes”, Orleans and Jefferson Parishes are on opposite ends of another issue: Food Trucks.

Just hours after New Orleans Mayor Mitch Landrieu vetoed a bill that would have allowed for more Food Trucks in Orleans Parish, Jefferson Parish District 5 Councilwoman Cynthia Sheng got Council approval for another Food Truck Rally in Fat City.

The second Food Truck Rally will take place on May 13^th from 5pm – 10pm in a strip center parking lot owned by Drago’s restaurant owner Tommy Cvitanovich.

Food Trucks were banned in Jefferson Parish after the parish was inundated with them during the recovery from Hurricane Katrina.

Sheng, who along with Sheriff Newell Normand, championed the Fat City Rezoning Ordinance which has caused dozens of businesses to close and the unemployment of hundreds of workers, is trying to revitalize Fat City with little success.

Sheng claims that the first Fat City Food Truck Rally, held on April 15^th, was an overwhelming success. But, is it a long-term cure to Fat City’s ills?

Salvatore’s Ristorante, a long-time Fat City fixture, has been shuttered for over a year but may soon reopen as an Oriental restaurant under new ownership. A coffee shop took over the space of another former restaurant. However, dozens of other storefronts and buildings are shuttered and the rezoning ordinance did not address the issue of the high density of apartments in the Fat City area.

Two and a half years into the controversial rezoning, Fat City should have more to hang it’s hat on than a replacement restaurant, a coffee shop and Food Trucks which do little to stimulate the economy or create real jobs in Fat City.