Food trucks can longer park in Denver's LoDo neighborhood starting Friday in police's effort to curb violence
Beginning Friday, food trucks will no longer be allowed to park in Denver's LoDo neighborhood on late-night weekends. Police handed out notices to food truck businesses on Friday.
It's part of a Denver Police Department pilot program to try to curb violence in the area and increase safety.
LoDo is known as one of the busiest parts of the city on weekend nights. The areas in which food trucks can operate will be restricted between the hours of 10 p.m. and 3 a.m. on Friday, Saturday and Sunday nights.
According to police, they have a large number of officers in the LoDo area on weekend nights and find violent incidents often happen in areas where crowds gather. According to police, those crowds usually congregate around food trucks.
"The restricted area of operation is intended to help reduce the number of 'bump into' fights and incidents that escalate to gun violence occurring among crowds during these nights and hours, and to encourage people to leave the LoDo area soon after the bars and nightclubs shut down," Denver police said in a statement.
In July, police implemented a new rideshare effort, asking Uber and Lyft to pick up riders in designated zones. According to police, the initial results proved effective.
"Another initiative aimed at reducing lingering crowds is the implementation by DPD of designated rideshare pickup zones in July. To date, the rideshare pickup zone initiative has helped to shave approximately 30-40 minutes off the typical out-crowd timeline," said Denver Police in a statement.
However, one food truck owner says this move by police could hurt them in the long run.
Mohammad Alissa's dream to open his restaurant came true in 2019, after running a successful food truck in Denver, open since 2017.
"The customers know our truck, they know our logo," said Alissa.
But, after learning he once again will no longer be able to operate his food truck in the lower downtown area on weekend late nights, he shares he is fed up.
"Close here, open there, you cannot open here, or open there," Alissa said. "We are tired!"
In 2022 police prohibited food trucks from setting up in the area after a shooting in the area in which seven people were injured.
This was after an altercation between Denver police and an armed suspect got out of hand near 20th and Larimer streets.
Denver police officers fired their weapons at the suspect, who they say pointed his gun at officers. Former Officer Brandon Ramos was charged with multiple crimes for firing his weapon with a crowd of bystanders behind the suspect and pleaded guilty to third-degree assault.
Alissa says this led their business and many other food truck owners to take a big hit financially.
"We lost business -- almost 40 to 50% -- we lost so much business that time and barely business is coming back little by little," said Alissa. "Then tell us to shut down again."
In a statement to CBS News Colorado, Denver police add:
"The Denver Police Department recognizes the impact to food truck businesses and minimized the footprint of the restricted area to the greatest extend possible to achieve the intended goals. Another part of this plan is creating two to three designated zones for the food truck operators to be able to park together to operate in that vicinity. The details of those three zones could be finalized as soon as today, and the city will handle the bagging of meters in these designated operation zones. DPD wants the food truck operators to be successful and for the area to be as safe as possible. This is a pilot program and DPD will evaluate the initiative and results moving forward to determine whether adjustments are needed."
The hope is people will leave the area right after they leave the club, bars or entertainment establishments.
The Lower Downtown Neighborhood Association, or LoDoNA, agrees and supports the move.
"We are supportive of moving food trucks to a different location to disperse the crowd," said LoDoNA board member Don Ku.
Business owners like Alissa just want a definite measure to put in place, not the back and forth. Alissa says if this continues, it is going to lead to him laying off his food truck employees.
"At least I still have a restaurant, and I make some money, but the employees, this is their income," said Alissa.
Police add other efforts to enhance safety in the area including increasing officer staffing, beyond the elevated staffing levels they have had in the LoDo area on Friday and Saturday nights for the past few summers. Their efforts include improving lighting and increasing outreach to bars/nightclubs in the LoDo area.
Police plan to add up at least three designated zones for food trucks, but the plan has not been laid out yet.
