Food trucks have too much leeway

Susan Stone, Las Vegas

Saturday, Sept. 15, 2012 | 2:02 a.m.

I don’t understand why J. Patrick Coolican is so in favor of food trucks in his column, “Close down bathrooms, not food trucks.”

He compares the food trucks parking within close proximity to bricks-and-mortar restaurants to Asian restaurants coexisting under the umbrella of a Chinatown. Not a good comparison, because the restaurants have to invest a similar dollar and time amount, whether they provide similar fare.

The establishments have to staff their businesses normal days and hours to earn enough to pay the overhead; trucks can participate in whichever events they choose, pack up and go home. Their initial investments will be recovered likely much sooner than those of an established restaurant with a lease.

Also, are these trucks required to be locally based businesses? If not, why should they benefit from our efforts to attract tourism? I have a chair massage business, and we have seen a similar influx of “carpetbaggers” feeding off our local talent, who are hired to staff many conventions. Yet we can’t get anyone to care about that, despite the loss of income to our local economy.

People who haven’t embarked on the happy trail of opening a business in Clark County should not be allowed to pontificate on the subject of what’s fair and what is not. Please, that is what we elect leaders to sort out for us.