Food Trucks Feeling Harassed In Downtown Minneapolis
MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) -- It's a food truck fight in Minneapolis. Some food truck workers say they feel harassed depending on where they park.
In downtown Minneapolis, 10th Street and Nicollet Mall is a busy intersection for food trucks. In fact, they get lots of business from Target employees.
"It's quick, convenient. I can run out of work, grab it and run back in and it's delicious. And it's cheaper, too," said Jen Mohler, a Target employee.
But many food truck operators feel that Target doesn't want them near their corporate headquarters.
Katie Newham, who helps run Simply Steve's food truck, said on Wednesday security guards walked outside the Target door and moments later Minneapolis police officers arrived were asking for their permit.
"They come up when there's customers, so I feel like it makes us look bad," said Newham. "We're totally legal to be here. We had our meter paid and we have our permits."
A similar situation happened at the Twisted Sister House of Hunger food truck.
"(A Target worker) said we needed to leave as soon as possible because he was smelling diesel fumes in their lobby," said Twisted Sister worker Cody Allen.
He said nothing on the truck uses diesel, only propane.
"Before (the worker) walked away he did actual comment that they wanted to get these meters taken out and made it a loading zone so that can't be here, period," Allen said.
A Target spokesperson emailed WCCO a statement saying, "Target respects the rights of street vendors. Target security has not contacted authorities about local street vendors."
"It just feels like it's just us, the little guy, against their big company," Newham said.
Food trucks can use metered spaces as long as they pay for the time. The city of Minneapolis said earlier this year it looked into this particular space on 10th and Nicollet and determined it was a legal area for the trucks to park.
