Should the city of Chicago be allowed to turn business districts into No-Vending Zones to protect brick-and-mortar restaurants from competition?

That is the question that surrounds a major grassroots campaign being launched today—My Streets! My Eats!— by the Institute for Justice Clinic on Entrepreneurship at the University of Chicago Law School. The Clinic, which brings together law students to assist low-income entrepreneurs, will advocate for freedom for mobile chefs to prepare food on-the-go and serve their customers wherever they can do so safely.

The Clinic will hold a strategy session that is open to all vendors, law students, advocates and members of the media on Tuesday, August 30, 7:00-8:30 pm at the University of Chicago Law School, 6020 S. University Ave., Room V. The meeting will bring together the creative entrepreneurs who are being crippled by Chicago’s restrictive rules so they can share their concerns and develop a plan of action.

Chicago officials have been ticketing and even arresting vendors simply for serving their customers. The current laws about serving food on the move are needlessly restrictive: mobile food businesses can only serve food that was finished and wrapped up in a kitchen, they cannot sell earlier than 10 a.m., and they cannot stop within 200 feet of restaurants.

Read more at IJ Clinic on Entrepreneurship