Portland made a quick about face after learning that trying to please everyone usually doesn't work.

Food trucks along the Eastern Prom have grown in popularity over the past few years. Some of that popularity was spurred by Covid when food trucks were the perfect safe distanced night out. But problems came with so many food trucks. Noise, parking, and trash quickly became problems Portland has been trying to fairly deal with.

Falafel Mafia/Facebook
Falafel Mafia/Facebook
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To solve this the city debated for months about ways to solve all the problems, and decided that limiting the number of food trucks to 10 would resolve a lot of the issues. But which 10 food trucks would be chosen? That's where the lottery system came into play. So Wednesday the 10 trucks were picked leaving out some long standing trucks, like Mr. Tuna who has been a regular on the prom for the past two years. The news was devastating for them. The chef and owner Jordan Rubin told the Portland Press Herald,

I’m panicking. I don’t really know what to do. I don’t know how to tell the guys we didn’t get it. Our staff, they’re not going to know if they have a job in two weeks.

It also upset those that were selected as the lucky 10, including Falafel Mafia.

Food trucks have each other's backs and the lottery system ended up being a lose-lose. The nice thing about the City of Portland is that they are more than willing to attempt a solution and take ownership when it fails.

In this Instagram post, Danielle West, Portland’s Interim City Manager, says

After receiving the various truck dimensions from the operators, I’m happy to report that the staff was able to reconfigure the space we have available in order to accommodate all 14 trucks.

Live and learn. The times they are a changing and Portland is trying to keep up. This is a pilot program and may be revised in the coming years...

 

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