Vancouverites deserve more than hotdogs, says councillor
Last Updated: Thursday, March 6, 2008 | 2:46 PM PT
CBC News
A Vancouver city councillor says it's time the city loosened restrictions on street vendors and allowed them to serve up something healthier than hotdogs.
The wiener carts that dot the downtown core aren't a reflection of the city's cultural diversity, according to councillor Heather Deal and she wants the public to be offered healthier choices from vendors.
Deal's inspiration comes from a street cart program in New York City, whose council has already licensed 4,000 green stands to sell fresh fruit and vegetables.
Another 1,000 new licences for green stands would put the carts into low-income neighbourhoods in New York where choices for healthy food are limited.
Deal says she doesn't see any reason Vancouver can't do the same. She plans to bring a motion to council next week to bring green carts to the city.
"Right now we have a street cart program that limits the number of them, limits the location of them and we don't have a program that would specifically ask the vendors to sell healthy food," Deal told CBC News.
Currently, strict health regulations severely limit what can be sold, so the second part of her motion would allow vendors to offer a greater variety of prepared food as well as food cooked on site, Deal said.
Deal will ask council to endorse the motion next week, and then enlist the city's food policy council to figure out how to bring the idea to the street.
Ultimately the market would decide whether the carts are a success, said Deal.
