David Weber, President of the NYC Food Trucks Association (NYCFTA), and founding member of Rickshaw Dumplings, and joins THE FOOD SEEN to discuss a pressing matter. The NYPD has recently been asked to enforce a 1950’s Transportation Department regulation that states, “no vendor, hawker or huckster shall park a vehicle at a metered parking space to offer merchandise for sale from the vehicle”, effectively threatening the food truck street presence in Midtown Manhattan, as well as in all 5 boroughs. Kim Ima, owner/operator of Treats Truck, and a trailblazer of the food truck scene, calls in to discuss how this effects not only our cityscape of food, but how it compromises the integrity of many truck’s business models and tests the limits of their faithful customer base.

* photo by Cinzia Reale-Castello

This week Mitchell Davis takes taste to the streets with Melina Shannon-DiPietro and David Weber. Melina, Director of the The Highline Park's Food and Revenue, talks about elevating the stature of street food, literally, and the importance of community input on the creation of such a public space. David Weber, President of the New York City Food Truck Association, gives his take on the surge in the last few years of 'premium' food trucks from LA to New York to Japan. This episode is sponsored Whole Foods Market.