This year both cities had plans to have a Food Truck Festival. As someone up north put it, “food trucks are the new ribfest.” Perhaps it's the influence of Food Network's shows like Diners, Dives and Drive-ins and the movie Chef; perhaps its the economy discouraging people from going for traditional sit-down restaurant meals while at the same time wanting more variety than plain old burgers and fries, but something has led to a major proliferation of food trucks around the land. Unlike a few years back, they're offering more than just greasy fries. Thai, Chinese, subs, ribs, frozen yogurt, kebobs- chances are, if you can think of it, there's a truck somewhere that is selling it fresh and hot (or cold, in the case of the yogurt!) Which leads us to the festivals- what better way to sample the different offerings than have the trucks all in the same place and perhaps hand out a few trophies?
This is where the similarities between the cities end. One city went ahead with the event, to great approval, while the other nixed the idea. I'm rather surprised to say that it was conservative Waco that hosted one while erstwhile liberal, forward-thinking Oshawa dragged its feet and voted down the idea. Councilors ignored the request of the truck owners and Business Improvement Area lobby (which expected 30 000 people to visit the downtown for the weekend it would be held) citing a bevy of reasons ranging from police concerns about blocking off a street for it to worries of health and sanitation. As cultural watchdog Will McGuirk noted, if there was a problem with sanitation on some of the vans, deal with that where needed, not by squashing the whole idea. A fair enough suggestion, especially given that the last major problem with food contamination in Ontario was in 2008 when listeria contaminated Maple Leaf Foods packaged meats , made in a large factory and sold in supermarkets. Twenty-two died from that, not from eating street foods.
Another reason the City cited for denying the permit was that it would clash with Fiesta. Fiesta is an old tradition in Oshawa, essentially a week to celebrate different cultures. Begun in the early '70s, it has a number of “pavilions” across the city offering ethnic eats and music, as well as lots of drinking. During its hay day, there were dozens of pavilions celebrating everything from the British Isles and the USA (country music, cowboy hats, hamburgers and Budweiser) to the exotic- Thailand, Philippines, India. The pavilions were crammed to the rafters every evening and people had a great time getting out, trying new foods and seeing some different faces and clothes.
The problem is, forty-odd years later, the old tradition seems old. Tired. When I was a kid, there were kids of just one Black family in my school. One of my first school friends was Jose, a lad my age whose family moved in up the road, escaping political oppression in the Philippines. Most adults in our town hadn't even heard of that country back then, let alone met any Filipinos. Restaurants of the day served up burgers, fries, maybe fish and chips or roast beef and gravy. Trying a plate of jerk chicken or sushi was exotic and daring. Nowadays, the city is a highly integrated one with immigrants from all over the world, and thriving Thai, Caribbean, Vietnamese and any number of other specialty restaurants . Common sense and public values have made the idea of driving from pavilion to paviliion across the city after having several drinks at each unacceptable. The result is that Fiesta is now a poorly-attended shell of its former self. One might think the idea of bringing in a number of Food trucks to add to the experience would be welcomed.
Here in Waco, the food truck festival took place downtown last month and featured 36 trucks from across the state, celebrity judges, and attention from TV's Food Network. The Great Australian Meat Pie truck from Dallas won “Best international dish” while local Most Wonderful Cupcakes lived up to their name and won “Best dessert.” In excess of 5000 people took in the event and except for a few trucks running out of food or water and needing to close early, there were no problems.
It's hard to imagine that the merchants of downtown Oshawa couldn't benefit from having such a similar influx of people to the area.
I'm happy that Waco is trying to explore new ideas and find new things to make life interesting here. They just hired on a new co-ordinator , Fiona Bond, for the Waco Arts Alliance. She witnessed a cultural renaissance taking place in Dundee, Scotland and hopes to bring some of the same concepts to this city. As she told Wacoan magazine, “research... showing that a thriving cultural sector correlates directly to all kinds of benefits, including growth in tourism, success in attracting and retaining talent and jobs,... greater community pride and even a reduction in crime.”
All worthwhile goals and I”m pleased to be taking part in one of the events this month. For the second year in a row, I'll be at Art On Elm Avenue. Begun in 2011, Art On Elm is a one-day display and market of local artists. Inside an abandoned building there are exhibits of visual arts from painters, photographers and sculptors while out on the street there's a stage with live music, food carts and artists selling their work (which is where I”ll be this year, with some of my photography available.) The event takes place in a rather down-and-out part of the city which is slowly trying to revitalize itself. Having thousands of people walk around it, enjoy themselves, patronize the few businesses open on the street and get to know their neighbors a little more seems like a win-win.
I hope I'll see you there, Saturday April 11, from 10AM to 3PM or so. And I hope my old hometown gets to being a bit more open-minded in pursuing new ways of bringing interest to its population and attention to its creative types.l