Roosevelt Island Mobile Food Trucks Now Allowed In Prime Area Near Subway Station But $345 Monthly Fee Imposed By RIOC - Fascinating Look At How RIOC Decisions Are Made

Image of Rickshaw Dumpling Food Truck From The Food Channel

As reported last night:

Excellent news from today's Operations Committee meeting. After a very long and sometimes lively discussion, RIOC Operations Committee decided to allow up to 3 mobile food trucks to serve the Roosevelt Island community from the West Channel Road north of the subway between the Starbucks and Blackwell Turnaround. This location is in addition to the previously agreed locations for street and mobile food vendors at:

Lighthouse Park
Octagon Soccer Field
Existing Farmers Market
Existing Fruit Stand Market on Sidewalk by Subway/Duane Read
the Tram Station and
Southpoint Park

RIOC still intends to charge a permit fee of $345 a month but it is possible that may be reduced or eliminated in the future. My understanding is that New York City charges $200 for a similar permit over a 2 year period.

Here's the video of last night's Roosevelt Island Operating Corp (RIOC) Operations Committee meeting.



It's a fascinating look at how decisions are made on Roosevelt Island.

The last 2 or 3 minutes of this discussion are missing because my camera battery ran out. Nothing of substance from the meeting was lost from the missing portion of the video.

Some early reactions from readers:

• Fabulous. Kudos to RIOC.
• I love it
• Good News!!
• Yea!!!! and
•  Wow I'm impressed. Bring on the Goodies!

though others are concerned that the monthly fee imposed in addition to the NYC license fee will inhibit food trucks from coming to Roosevelt Island when they have the choice to serve other neighborhoods that don't impose any separate fees.

UPDATE 4:15 PM - Advised by Luke's Lobster truck vendor that they would like to come back to Roosevelt Island even with the permit fee and are just waiting for the permits to become available from RIOC. Roosevelt Island resident Mark Lyon contacted several food truck vendors and adds:

Thus far, I've received expressions of interest from:

@LukesLobsterNY - http://www.lukeslobster.com/nauti/@COOLHAUS - http://www.eatcoolhaus.com/@WallStBurgers - http://www.wallstreetburgers.com/@fritesnmeats - http://www.fritesnmeats.com/

I've passed along contact info for the permit office to all of them. For anyone else interested, the permit office can be reached at (212) 832-4557 or by visiting http://rioc.ny.gov/generalapp.htm