A Successful Recipe For Accountability In Your Small Business
in august of 2013, i was returning back stateside from afghanistan, i had several job opportunities lined up when i touched ground here back in the states, nothing came through. after about a month and a half of just spinning my wheels, doing everything i was supposed to do, i decided to listen to a buddy of mine who had suggested to start my own business, a pizzeria,
and that's what i went with decided to take my fate into my own hands. i'm joey vanoni, i own and operate pizza di joey food truck. i love making pizza, clearly. i remember as a kid going with my family to a local pizzeria in town, and it was just a very exciting thing for me to see. you see the red sauce going onto the white dough,
you add some cheese, and started working at a pizzeria in high school it was a great time i told my boss later on i could have worked here for free. then i was in the service, i baked pizzas on submarines, in afghanistan for my buddies for sunday football. so here at pizza di joey food truck, we make new york style brick oven pizza,
the recipes are all our own, and we use locally sourced ingredients. baltimore has a law which prohibits mobile vendors from selling their items within 300 feet of a brick-and-mortar establishment that sells the same. for pizza di joey, we cannot park within 300 feet of another pizzeria or pizza restaurant. there are several neighborhoods i would like
to operate in within baltimore, fells point, federal hill, canton. the problem is, if i park there 300 feet away from one pizzeria, i'm within 200 feet of another, there's pizzeria's all throughout these neighborhoods. because of this law, i have to choose locations that have less foot traffic, that obviously effects my bottom line.
one of our missions is to employ veterans, and not being able to operate freely really limits my ability to put veterans to work. they don't expect a handout, they just want a fair shake and i'm trying to give them one. if i violated the 300-foot rule, baltimore could fine me $500, they could pull my permit at that time after three violations they have to revoke my permit
and then i wouldn't be able to reapply for twelve months. the people of baltimore should decide who they go to for lunch, not the government officials. a strong restaurant lobby, and a strong retail lobby teamed up with city government to take away the rights from businesses just like me. i'm teaming up with the institute for justice to challenge this law because it's wrong and unconstitutional.
this is the american dream, pizza di joey food truck is the american dream. if the 300 foot rule was struck down, not only would it allow the mobile vending industry in baltimore to really develop and thrive but it would let the rest of the country know that baltimore is open for business
