Paul Bass Photo
Hernandez with Jesus Mazariego inside El Cubano; below, the generator.
Osmany Hernandez had his Predator 8,750 generator cranking on his Sandwiches El Cubano food truck Monday — but thanks to a newly announced $400,000 upgrade of the Long Wharf vending district, he’ll soon be able to save on the gas and the pollution.
A crowd gathered near his truck Monday morning not necessarily to buy food but to mark an upgrade the city has made to what it now officially calls the “Food Truck Paradise” by the harbor by I‑95 on Long Wharf Drive.
Where the bike lanes willl go.
The city is in the process of putting in 1,000 feet of new sidewalk, pedestrian crossings, 12-foot-tall pedestrian lights, and four solar-powered “Bigbelly” trash compactors in the vending area, as well as two-way protected bike lanes all along Long Wharf Drive.
Jamal Watts, Charles Wilkerson and William Tisdale planting on Monday.
A crew from the prison-reentry EMERGE program planted nine new trees there Monday under the direction of the Urban Resources Initiative.
City Engineer Giovanni Zinn by one of the cones marking where the plug-ins will go.
And 17 new plug-in stations are going in by the trucks’ parking lane, to accommodate 34 trucks overall, a 50 percent increase from the current inventory. Food truck operators will be able to plug in rather than run those generators, cutting their costs and carbon emissions.
Hernandez said he currently pays $70 a month to power the generator attached to the truck he has operated for three years. The city plans to charge him and other vendors $500 a year to use the electricity. It also plans to set the annual licensing fee at $2,500 (or $10 a day per 250 envisioned working days) to park and vend at long Wharf, according to Steve Fontana, the city’s deputy development administrator. (The fees need approval from the Board of Alders.)
The overall work is expected to be completed in coming months. (Part of the sidewalk has to wait for the state to complete some highway construction.) Almost all of the $400,000 comes from a $935,000 state grant to finance redevelopment of Long Wharf. The food truck work dovetails with other Long Wharf upgrades including the construction of a new boathouse and visitors center.
Nemerson: “Paradise” by the harbor.
“This will be the most quiet food truck center this side of California,” declared city economic development chief Matthew Nemerson, referring to the electricity plug-ins.
He said the upgrade of the food truck area will support the growth of small businesses, including many operated by immigrants.
“We call it ‘Food Truck Paradise’ because that’s what Google calls it,” he said. The phrase popped up during a Google maps search. It stuck.