In what could be criticized as one of the most illogical decisions in crime-fighting history, the poor attempt to combat rising crime in the city of Denver could be the one plan that ruins business for small food truck owners in downtown areas. Leilani Johnson, who is an owner of RJ’s Tacowich Food Truck, joined “Fox & Friends First” to discuss the recent move, which has hurt her financially as she was forced to move her business.
Here’s the official news video on Denver’s nitwit idea:
Denver police said that, as city officials are trying to lessen crowds and prevent crimes, removing the food trucks from the city blocks could become permanent. Leilani Johnson told ABC Denver: “It feels horrible. And as a new business, a woman in business, it’s just hard. It’s already hard. And now we’re making it even harder.” “We did half of our normal sales on a Saturday night. … There are better ways to solve this problem that [don’t] involve hurting the small businesses who are trying to perform a service for our community members,” she added.
Food trucks were given little to no notice, Johnson told Carley Shimkus, and are now struggling to figure out where to operate their businesses. “I think that’s the biggest issue for us food truck owners right now is that we just had zero say. They just kind of threw it at us and said ‘deal with it’ basically, and haven’t given us an alternate solution or a new location or somewhere else to be,” she said.
The action will cut down on large crowds of intoxicated individuals who go to the food trucks after bars close in the early morning hours, officials believe. Johnson also says that she has not experienced those issues and doesn’t believe the move will lessen crime. “I’ve never felt threatened or unsafe working downtown with my female co-worker. We run shifts till 2-3:00 in the morning,” said Johnson.
A year ago, Johnson left her teaching job to open her own food truck, and now she is being forced to deal with this unplanned situation the city of Denver has put her in, with the intention to save her business. Even worse, it seems like more and more teachers are quitting their jobs because of poor budget management and lack of good administration, especially in urban districts where teachers are barely supported by their higher ups who often waste money on things that teachers and students don’t need, then continue wasting time with standardized testing that does not benefit a child in any way.