In one of the best local stories from last year, local high school student/entrepreneur Zach Ware started a fairly successful waffle food truck with his mom. Their story was featured all over the local news and warmed the hearts of hipsters and grandmothers alike. In fact, it’s such a great up-from-the-bootstraps story, that I wouldn’t be surprised to see politicians descending on young Zach by the dozens for potential “I-get-credit-for-this-guy” photo ops.
But alas, bureaucracy is rearing its ugly head. The city is reinterpreting its laws from last year, now saying that the truck can no longer park at meters and is now being asked to pay for a license for each employee instead of just $250. Here’s a video from last night’s WCIA news (featuring C-U’s best newscaster): http://illinoishomepage.net/fulltext?nxd_id=371252.
I honestly don’t know much about how city politics work in this town, but someone is pulling some strings behind the scenes in this scenario. You don’t just suddenly decide to reinterpret city laws. Let the conjecture about what Champaign business is using local government to eliminate the competition begin.
No need to worry though, there will be a study session.