We promised a followup on the hot-dog cart controversy: As reported here yesterday, we had learned that the Hot Dog Joes cart which set up outside Beveridge Place Pub in Morgan Junction in late February didn’t just go away because its trial period ran out, HDJ’s Joe Jeannot told WSB he’d been cited by the city twice and was having trouble working the situation out. Part of the problem is a city ordinance saying vendors aren’t allowed within 200 feet of parks, but as we noted yesterday, Jeannot acknowledged there was more to the story, though he declined to discuss details. Today, SDOT has some details in this statement sent to us by communications director Rick Sheridan:
The cart’s operator, Hot Dog Joes, was cited by SDOT for vending without a permit in the right of way. They did not have a health certificate or insurance to serve at that location. While cited for being within 200 feet of a park, the health and safety issues were the overriding reasons for the citations. The permit, health certificate and insurance are common requirements for food vendors, to prevent folks from getting sick or being injured, and can be easily obtained.
We tried to work with the cart operator so they would be in compliance with the law. Our Street Use inspector, who helps regulate right of way areas like sidewalks, warned the onsite vendor in person and sent a follow-up e-mail about the violations well before writing the citations.
Hot Dog Joes was aware of the requirements as they started the permit application process but never completed it. Given that they had received several warnings and refused to follow the law, the department was forced to write the citations. However, we are happy to work with Hot Dog Joes and help bring their hot dogs and bratwursts back to West Seattle.
So will they be able to work it out? Jeannot is a West Seattleite and told us in our initial conversation that whether it’s outside BPP or elsewhere, he would love to have a cart here. We’ll be contacting him for an update on whether there’s progress in working out the situation with the city. Meantime, we also contacted Councilmember Tom Rasmussen‘s office regarding the 200-foot rule, since he runs the Parks Committee, and he promised to look into the rationale for it, and to see if it might merit changing.
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