I just read that San Francisco is about to pass new regulations that
ban food trucks from operating within 75 feet of a fixed restaurant, within 500 feet of middle schools, and within 750 feet of high schools.
The ban around schools is ostensibly to prevent childhood obesity. When I grew up, there was always an ice cream scooter that parked right outside my school when school let out. San Francisco would make that illegal.
The ban around restaurants is for no reason other than to prevent mobile food vendors from competing with existing restaurants. Is there any good reason for that other than San Francisco's city council likes the restaurant lobby? What public good could possibly derive from preventing business competition?
For that matter, why should there be any restrictions at all on street vendors? Why shouldn't people be allowed to sell goods or services on the public street, which is after all, public? Why can't someone sell trinkets or T-shirts out of a cardboard suitcase? Why can't someone sell fruit out of the back of a van? Why can't someone set up a booth and offer sidewalk fortune telling or manicures?