Gainesville residents might soon be able to buy food from their favorite mobile vendors by the light of day.
The Gainesville City Commission preliminarily voted 5-0 last week to change a city law that would extend operating hours for vending and mobile food vendors in downtown Gainesville from 10 p.m. to 3 a.m. Food vendors in the Midtown area of Gainesville would also have their hours extended.
According to the ordinancew, food vendors would be able to serve customers from 7 a.m. to 3 a.m. seven days a week. Additional approval would finalize the new hours.
Jeff Babik, who worked with the Public Safety Committee on the issue, wrote a proposal last fall that promoted extending hours as a way for the vendors to generate revenue.
“It is often easy for us to see food vendors at face value and not realize that a lot of the vendors are out there to make a living and bring in some much-needed income for their family and to support themselves,” he wrote.
