Patterico's Pontifications

7/23/2018

Teen’s Hot Dog Stand Inspires Health Department To Help, Not Hinder

Filed under: General — Dana @ 9:00 pm



[guest post by Dana]

During the dog days of summer, media reporting on all things Trump is at a rolling boil. Whether it’s about him throwing red meat to his base, his Putin man-crush come to a shameful head, his possible revocation of security clearances , or taking aim at the “Amazon Washington Post” and anything to do with the “Mueller Witch Hunt,” all the scribes from all the tribes are furiously shaping and molding the news so that the public knows what to think. Ugh. Let’s hit the pause button for a second, and cleanse the palate with some unexpected decency and generosity.

I don’t know about where you live, but in my neighborhood there are any number of front-yard lemonade stands serving up cold drinks to wilting neighbors. The young entrepreneurs are polite as they pour refreshments from plastic pitchers into little Dixie cups and happily collect their quarters as a hovering adult reminds them to say thank you. If possible, I stop at these stands because young people learning the basics of running a little business while earning some summer money is a win-win. With that, the Star Tribune ran a great story about an ambitious 13-year old running a hot dog stand, and what happened when the inevitable complaint was made and the Minneapolis Health Department got involved. Hold your assumption though, because things didn’t go the way they typically do when a regulatory authority is involved.

Jaequan Faulkner stood under a shady pop-up tent, shuffling dollar bills and tucking them into a pink cash register, his hazel eyes locked on the next customer.

The pop-up Mr. Faulkner’s Old Fashioned Hot Dogs goes far beyond the traditional neighborhood kid’s lemonade stand. It’s a business with a permit from the city of Minneapolis.

Faulkner’s venture, a tabletop of hot dogs, Polish sausages, chips, drinks and condiments, will travel around the North Side this summer, including stops at the Minneapolis Police Department’s Fourth Precinct, the Minneapolis Urban League and Sanctuary Covenant Church. Eventually he hopes to move into a food truck.

Jaequan Faulkner said he likes running his own business and that he likes how he shows people that young people can do anything.

And now about that complaint and the Minneapolis Health Department.

The city received a complaint about the teen’s stand, said Logan Ebeling, a Minneapolis health inspector.

But rather than shut the teen’s stand down, the city stepped up to help his business improve.

According to Ebeling, Faulkner did need to make some changes to his stand. He had to get a tent for overhead protection, a hand washing station and the city also gave him a thermometer to check the temperatures of his sausages and hot dogs.

Staff from the Minneapolis Health Department, the Minneapolis Promise Zone and the Northside Economic Opportunity Network (NEON) came together to help bring Faulkner’s hot dog stand up to code.

“We’ve been working with Jaequan on the business side of things, like basic business, finance, marketing, pricing… he’s really been excited about all of it,” said Ann Fix, program manager for the Northside Food Business Incubaor.

Staff from the city’s health department even chipped in to help pay for his $87 permit.

“Surprisingly, I’m like, dang the city’s not the bad guys in this situation. They’re actually the ones who are helping me,” Faulkner said. “It makes me feel kind of—not kind of—really proud that people know what I’m doing.”

But for Jaequan Faulkner, he has another goal than just making money:

Next year, Faulkner hopes to put 25 cents from every hot dog sale toward raising awareness about youth suicide and depression, something he’s struggled with personally.

Jaequan said that he was bullied when he was younger. As such, having the stand and having to to go to work helps him not to dwell on what happened. The business has given him a purpose and hope. I figure if a self-run hot dog stand has substantially built up the self-confidence of a struggling young person, then everyone in the vicinity of Mr. Faulkner’s Old Fashioned Hot Dogs is obliged to go buy a dog from him.

Obviously, coming to Jaequan’s aid didn’t require a massive amount of time or money on the part of the Minneapolis Health Department. What it required was a willingness to help in real time, and in a very tangible way. If we have to have such a regulatory agency, then this seems more in line with how they should function. And the immediate question should be: How can we help in a tangible way and in real time? Because now that the Minneapolis Health Department set a precedent by coming to the aid of the young entrepreneur in such a beneficial way, what happens when other entrepreneurs like Jaequan face similar complaints? While the staff was generous to pay the permit costs, what about the other necessary items that the agency itself supplied? How far does the regulatory arm of generosity extend, and what is the criteria one must meet to be the recipient of such a gift?

(Cross-posted at The Jury Talks Back.)

–Dana

27 Responses to “Teen’s Hot Dog Stand Inspires Health Department To Help, Not Hinder”

  1. Help, not hinder.

    Dana (023079)

  2. That actually is how city inspectors usually function. They advise business owners how to come into compliance with the health and safety codes, give them time within which to do it, and if they pass the re-inspection dismiss the complaint.

    nk (dbc370)

  3. Common sense is still around in Minnesota, except among the walter pecks of this world.

    Narciso (26e876)

  4. Not to mention that get a cut of between 8% and 10% (sales taxes) of the kid’s operation. 😉

    nk (dbc370)

  5. I hope they advised him to put up a sign that said “price includes all taxes”, otherwise he’ll get taxed on his entire sales price instead of price minus the tax.

    nk (dbc370)

  6. Like it or not, the Health department acted as fascists. They decided to not let someone fail of his own accord.

    Equal application of government munificence is necessary that people not lose faith and trust. Same for law/justice.

    They also helped forestall a potential examination by the power (the voting folks) of the function of the HD and of the structure of the laws any purveyor of prepared foods must navigate and observe. See? Your government has a heart!

    Ed from SFV (6d42fa)

  7. I disagree, Ed. The Health dept. simply corrected an existing deficiency, and possible health risk to the public. Which is the very reason for the inspections. The funds afforded to the inspectee were not state funds, but private funds from interested individuals. That some/all the interested individuals were in the employ of the state does not prevent them from acting in a private capacity. Even in their official capacity, there is room for discretion in what they do.

    Equal application was demonstrated in that the inspectee was afforded an oportunity to come into compliance. That compliance was obtained with freely given help is not fascism.

    felipe (023cc9)

  8. Anybody who doesn’t know that
    “the structure of the laws any purveyor of prepared foods must navigate and observe”
    is designed so that
    1. There will be purveyors of prepared foods, and
    2. People will confidently go and spend their money in them,
    doesn’t know how America works. He’s living in a Rothbardian cloud-cuckoo land.

    nk (dbc370)

  9. Archeologists have been known to take students to land fills for practices digs. Occasionally they find hot dogs, decades old, pumped so full of preservatives they don’t decay.

    Eat hearty!

    DCSCA (797bc0)

  10. 9. Gryph’s fun fact: Left on their own without embalming, modern human corpses can take up to three weeks to begin the decay process. Scientists who study such things have deduced that it may be because of the preservatives in the food we eat. Though finding a large enough control group makes a blind scientific study nearly impossible, all studies conducted on this matter have reached the same conclusion.

    Gryph (08c844)

  11. “Maria Fife, Julie’s mom, said her daughter wanted to open a lemonade stand after seeing a cartoon character open one. She was selling Kool-Aid lemonade for 50 cents a cup when an inspector approached and asked for her license at Last Thursday, a monthly fair in northeast Portland. The inspector told them that they would need to leave or possibly face a $500 fine. A second inspector also approached the stand later.

    While the county inspectors were doing their job, Cogen said, the rules are meant for professional food service operators.

    Inspectors need to use professional judgment, he said. “This isn’t something we need to be using our limited resources to crack down on,” he said.

    Ya think?

    https://www.cbsnews.com/news/inspectors-shut-down-girls-lemonade-stand/

    harkin (f58543)

  12. Pasteur is rolling over in his grave. In the absence of bacteria, or in an environment which does not permit the growth of bacteria, nothing rots. The Sahara for example. Or landfills where before, along with, and after, every layer of garbage, tons of “preservatives” (quicklime is one) which kill, or r***rd the growth of, bacteria are spread for precisely the reason to prevent the landfill from turning into a giant Petri dish.

    nk (dbc370)

  13. hot dogs are too many nitrate

    happyfeet (28a91b)

  14. I know this is supposed to be some kind of heartwarming story, but it elides the fact that this young man’s business endeavor is subject to the whims of the persons enforcing these kind of stupid regulations. THIS time, THIS person was helpful. That is a very large exception to the rule.

    radar (e827c2)

  15. Every knows it’s about humour in the blood, reason leaches.

    Narciso (1dffc8)

  16. #14. Did you miss out on reading The Jungle in high school? With respect to hot dogs, health and safety regulations do matter. Even if Ayn Rand is your preferred reading.

    Appalled (96665e)

  17. Ah yes, The Jungle. Did I miss the part of the story where the kid was producing hot dogs rather than grilling them?

    radar (e827c2)

  18. I know this is supposed to be some kind of heartwarming story, but it elides the fact that this young man’s business endeavor is subject to the whims of the persons enforcing these kind of stupid regulations. THIS time, THIS person was helpful. That is a very large exception to the rule.

    That’s why a person can’t find a bite to eat in this country, except in grocery stores. Not a single restaurant, hot dog stand, sandwich shop, donut shop, coffee shop, or fast food place anywhere.

    ***That was sarcasm.***

    Where do you people live? Do you think municipalities don’t want restaurants and try to drive them away? Do you think people would eat at restaurants if they weren’t fairly confident that health inspectors are making sure that they will not be poisoned? Health and safety regulations are not an undue burden to a properly-run business — they are a selling point.

    nk (dbc370)

  19. It’s a lemonade stand not tony Romas get a grip.

    Narciso (1dffc8)

  20. Well nk, let me respond with a question of my own – do you think someone running a business would stay in business very long if they were poisoning anyone? As regards your question, yes, in many cases municipalities (or, more properly, officials of those municipalities and their regulatory minions) are happy to drive off competitors to the restauranteurs who donate money to them. You think that the myriad of silly laws and regulations aimed at food trucks are carried out in the name of safety rather than at the urging of restaurants who don’t like having to compete?

    radar (e827c2)

  21. Well nk, let me respond with a question of my own – do you think someone running a business would stay in business very long if they were poisoning anyone?

    Do you think that in a democratic country, it is a legitimate governmental interest to make sure that no person is poisoned in the first place, and that that interest is stronger than another person’s interest in trying to make a buck?

    nk (dbc370)

  22. nk – The issue is the equal application of regulatory standards, and the need for any number of such which go far beyond legitimate public health needs.

    Favoritism was demonstrated by the functionaries in this case.

    Ed from SFV (6d42fa)

  23. I stop at these stands because young people learning the basics of running a little business while earning some summer money is a win-win

    They don’t talk about taxes.

    Sammy Finkelman (02a146)

  24. 12. nk (dbc370) — 7/24/2018 @ 8:10 am

    In the absence of bacteria, or in an environment which does not permit the growth of bacteria, nothing rots. The Sahara for example. Or landfills where before, along with, and after, every layer of garbage, tons of “preservatives” (quicklime is one) which kill, or r***rd the growth of, bacteria are spread for precisely the reason to prevent the landfill from turning into a giant Petri dish.

    Or Antarctica.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2017/08/11/edible-100-year-old-cake-scott-expedition-found-antarctic/

    Or the Arctic.

    https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/arctic-explorers-uncover-60-year-old-food-stash-180956936/

    Sammy Finkelman (02a146)

  25. I don’t know that they will actually collect the taxes. If they will, they didn’t tell the newspaper.

    Sammy Finkelman (02a146)

  26. I am quessing that the article omits a discussion of taxes because the collection of sales tax is not a function of the Health Dept. It is a function of the Minnesota Dept. of Revenue.

    felipe (023cc9)

  27. @10… 25 years in municipal policing gave me too many opportunities to encounter deceased persons who had not had the benefit of embalming. Almost all were less than 3 weeks gone. Decomposition had definitely begun, trust me. Maybe they just needed more hotdogs, or bacon, or whatever in their earlier years.

    Gramps (85597f)


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