A Milwaukee County Circuit Court Judge on Friday temporarily lifted a city curfew targeting food trucks operating downtown and at Burnham Park, leaving current food truck hours in place until at least June 10.
Two days before the curfew was set to start, Abdallah Ismail, the owner of Fatty Patty located downtown, sued the city over an ordinance change in late April that would’ve imposed a 10 p.m. curfew on downtown food trucks and an 11 p.m. curfew in Burnham Park starting on May 9. Food trucks have typically operated until 1 a.m. under current city law.
The Wisconsin Institute for Law & Liberty, a law firm that pursues conservative interests, is representing Ismail. The suit requested an emergency stay to stop the ordinance from going into effect, arguing the new law is unconstitutional, violating food truck owners’ rights to earn a living and violating the guarantee of equal treatment with bars and restaurants in those areas.
“We do see this as an emergency situation,” WILL Associate Counsel Kirsten Atanasoff said at the May 8 court hearing. “As soon as that ordinance takes effect, it will immediately be causing irreparable harm to the plaintiff’s business.”
Atanasoff pushed back on arguments that having the food trucks close earlier will curb violence in the area. She also argued that if food trucks must close at that hour, other local businesses, including bars and restaurants in the areas targeted by the ordinance, should be subject to the curfew as well.
City officials have raised concerns following several shootings in the area in recent years, suggesting the ordinance change was in the interest of public safety.
“We’re not blaming the food truck operators for the violence,” Milwaukee Assistant City Attorney Joshua Cronin said at the hearing. “We’re simply saying that because these trucks are there, large numbers of people congregate and those large congregations have a propensity to result in violence and, in fact, have resulted in violence.”
Cronin warned Circuit Judge Jean Kies that the decision to lift the curfew should not be taken lightly.
Kies said she understood the potential impact such an ordinance can have on the food trucks, but also recognized the city’s concerns about public safety in those areas.
“This is a difficult situation for the court to balance those equities,” Kies said ahead of her decision. “But, I think under the facts and circumstances that all the criteria for the temporary relief are satisfied in this case. At this point in time plaintiffs have shown a reasonable probability of success on the merits.”
She changed the original request for a five-day stay to June 10 to afford the city more time to prepare evidence for the next hearing in the case.
Kies said she would need more evidence to determine whether she would issue a longer-term temporary injunction while the lawsuit is ongoing.
Relieved by the judge’s decision, Ismail was all smiles as he shook hands and hugged fellow food truck owners who showed up for support.
“A month, rather than five days that we were expecting, it’s really great,” Ismail, who operates on Water Street, said after the hearing. “It is an emergency for us … We’re part of the city. We’re serving people food. We want to make everyone enjoy the food. We’re not there to create an issue.”
The City Attorney’s Office must provide a written response to the complaint by May 22, ahead of a motion hearing at 9 a.m. June 10.
(This story was updated to add a photo gallery.)
This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Milwaukee food truck hours stay in place after judge blocks curfew
Reporting by Vanessa Swales, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel / Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
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