Salem Welcomes Food Truck Rallies and More

Responding to pressure from the Salem Food Truck Association, the Salem City Council in Oregon wisely updated its restrictive food truck laws in July 2014. The Council voted to allow food trucks to cluster, as they do in Portland, host food truck rallies, and operate in the same location for more than two hours at a time. A city license now allows food trucks to operate on private property for up to 12 months.

See the adopted ordinance here.

The Oregon Restaurant and Lodging Association vehemently opposed these changes, citing health and safety concerns. But as the Institute for Justice demonstrated in its recent sanitation report, Street Eats, Safe Eats, food trucks are just as safe and clean as restaurants.

Salem’s changes allow food trucks to better exercise their constitutional right to earn a living free from burdensome regulations. Unfortunately, it is still illegal for food trucks to vend on public property; hopefully fixing that is next on the Salem City Council’s menu.

The Institute for Justice will continue to work with the Salem Food Truck Association to free the food trucks once and for all in the city.