Slide shown by PBOT right-of-way manager at City Council this morning.
“This will increase the walkability of the Central City Plan District and decrease the need for auto-oriented transportation.”
Portland City Council voted unanimously at their meeting this morning to green light a new pilot program that will bring more mobile food trucks to the the central city. The program is expected to help revitalize downtown, the Lloyd, and the Central Eastside, by allowing food truck operators to park adjacent to sidewalks and do business in the public right-of-way — a practice current city code prohibits.
The program will be operated by the Portland Bureau of Transportation (PBOT) as an expansion of their Healthy Business permit program that was launched during the pandemic as a way to help businesses expand operations into the street. That program also began as a pilot and was recently made permanent.
The ordinance means PBOT receives a nearly two-year waiver from having to comply with existing city code 14A.50.040 which states, “It shall be unlawful for any person to sell or attempt to sell any merchandise or services in or upon any sidewalk, street, alley, lane, public right of way, or under any bridgeway or viaduct within the Central City Plan District.”
Hopefully, flexibility in vending rules on transportation right-of-way will lead to a similar shift in Parks-owned properties like Waterfront Park which is currently a dead zone just waiting for food and drink vendors. (Left photo: Jonathan Maus/BikePortland)At council today, PBOT Commissioner Mingus Mapps said the pilot program will, “Increase the walkability of the Central City Plan District and decrease the need for auto-oriented transportation.” Mapps lined up supportive testimony from leaders in the local food cart and mobile food scene, as well as a representative of a major downtown property owner who has used food trucks to lure workers back to offices.
I was very happy when Commissioner Rene Gonzalez asked a question about how this program might influence Portland Parks & Recreation to allow carts on their properties. The lack of vendors in Portland’s parks has long been a thorn in the side of urbanists and anyone who understands how to create dynamic public spaces. PBOT right-of-way specialist David McEldowney told Gonzalez he’s already spoken to a high-level Parks staffer about it: “The vibe I got from him was that Parks staff really don’t want the food trucks in the park. So if they could come next to the park and vend in there, that was much more exciting for them… So, we’re looking forward to having a great relationship with Parks on this.”
And Mapps Policy Advisor Jackson Pahl added, “If Parks does want to come forward and partner with PBOT on activating streets along their parks, we are ready, willing, able and very, very excited to activate both public and private property.”
A stronger partnership between PBOT and Parks on activating public spaces (or on anything for that matter!) would reap huge benefits for our city, so this back-and-forth was great to hear.
The only concern fielded during discussion of this agenda item at the council meeting came from Commissioner Dan Ryan. Calling it a “good problem” to have, he said when downtown is busy again and there’s a lot of foot traffic and demand, some business owners might not like the idea of losing parking spaces. “Imagine the day when there is a lot of traffic… and the food truck is taking up a couple parking spaces and… you hear from small brick-and-mortar tenants downtown they want to have readily available parking… how we will be flexible when we want to do all we can for our small businesses?”
PBOT’s McEldowney responded by pointing out that the current pilot program will only allow one food truck per activation. “So that’s only two parking spaces off any one blockface within several blocks of each other. So as far as taking up existing parking this won’t have a big impact there.”
In comments before voting, Parks Commissioner (and mayoral candidate) Carmen Rubio didn’t say anything about vendors in Parks; but with the pilot ending after Rubio, Ryan, and the rest of current Council are no longer in their positions, there will be an excellent opportunity to expand the program in 2026 if it’s successful.
In comments before sharing his “yes” vote, Mayor Wheeler rattled off a list of positive trends he sees in downtown’s resurgence, then added. “I saw a great quote the other day in The Atlantic from a city designer in San Francisco who said, ‘If people don’t have to be in the Central City, what you need to do is make them want to be in the central city’.”
The code waiver goes into effect immediately and PBOT has until end of calendar year 2025 to run the program. Read the ordinance here.
