Travel Calendar

Russell Brand called in his interview to Howard Stern earlier today where he was grilled about his split from Katy Perry but as always kept it classy (does that mean this article is baseless?): ”I loved her so much, it just seemed like the sensible thing to do [when we got married] … I just loved her so much. He goes on to say that after they were married (although he didn’t indicate how long after) he realized:

“this isn’t really working out, it’s a difficult situation … I was really, really in love with her, but it was difficult to see each other … We were together when it was right to be together, and when it wasn’t we worked it out … It was a lovely relationship … it mostly didn’t work for practical reasons … We did work it out, she’s happy, I’m happy.” With Brand working on movies and Perry in the studio and on the road, the long distance relationship thing just took a toll on the couple. “She’s young, successful and dedicated,” he said of his former wife’s ambition and drive. “[The reality is] you can’t fully understand it until you do it. I was really into the idea of marriage and having children.”

And of course media speculation is that he wanted kids and she didn’t, but he remained tight-lipped on those particular details stating:

“I don’t want anything to hurt her,” he said. “She’s younger than me, she’s a young woman and she’s beautiful and she’s sensitive and I care about her deeply … I don’t want to be too glib,” he said about fears that Perry would read second-hand tabloid accounts of his Stern interview that will twist his words around. “She’ll read it and she’ll be sad and I don’t want that.”

How beautiful is that? That shows class, grace and great maturity on his part. See THAT is true love: where you protect another’s feelings above all else. And as for him not wanting her money (which without a prenup and the marriage in California he was entitled to half):
“I’ve got a good job,” he said. “All I want to do I want to live a good life … I’m not into taking money from women.”

When Stern read out some of the lyrics of the song ‘Wide Awake’, which Brand had not heard (“I was in the dark … I was falling hard … how did I read the stars so wrong,”) he was uncomfortable but  managed to say:

“That could be about anything … horoscopes, astronomy,” Brand joked.

Continuing with the song: “Now it’s clear to me/ that everything you see/ ain’t always what it seems,” Stern suggested that Perry was talking about Brand:

“Your interpretation sounds somewhat arbitrary,” Brand said. “She’s a young woman dealing with the breakup of a relationship … which is understandable. It’s a nice song.”

While people don’t understand my (and plenty others’) love/lust for Brand, those answers are why. Sure he’s odd and peculiar and sometimes dresses like he did so in the dark, but he is someone you can trust not to blab his mouth all over town. He has been classy from day one when this split occurred. That’s priceless and hot!
 

Your bank account is nearly empty, but wanderlust has set in and you’re desperate to get away from your boss. How can you pull off your dream vacation? It’s not as hard as you think, according to many travel experts. Don’t let limited funds stop you from taking your next epic journey — check out these great, and cheap, destinations:

Thailand

This beach-laden paradise, nestled between Burma, Laos and Cambodia, won’t disappoint, travel writers say, and once you get there, will cost you almost nothing. The round-trip flight can run around $700 from New York, “but once you’re there, you can find five-star hotels and intra-country flights for under $100 plus 30-minute massages and multiple plates of Pad Thai for $5,” says Andrew Young, the Editor of Travelzoo. And even though the country is cheap, Young adds, you won’t be sacrificing comfort or safety. As long as you exercise common sense, the travel centers of “Bangkok, Chiang Mai, Phuket and Ko Phi Phi/Krabi are safe.” (But remain alert: two Canadian sisters died under mysterious circumstances in Phi Phi in June and an Australian travel agent was killed in a robbery in Phuket the same month).

Mexico

Mexico has suffered from a run of drug violence in recent years, and as a result, prices for tourist destinations have plummeted. While there are areas to avoid, there are many more that remain safe, beautiful and cheap. “Fear is holding back travel throughout the country and that means there are deals aplenty to very nice, safe destinations,” says Lauren Sullivan, a site editor at Cheapflights.com. “To be safe, look into booking travel to the east coast – Cancun, Cozumel in particular.” Several carriers run vacation packages to these cities from New York, starting at $450 per person.

 Las Vegas

If all else fails, you can always jump on a jet to Vegas. There is never a shortage of deals to and from this desert destination, experts say. According to Bill Miller, an executive at discount airfare site CheapOair.com, the top national destination to find cheap hotel and airfare rates is Las Vegas. Airfares and flights remain reasonably priced to draw tourists, who industry figures say spend their money at the casinos. In addition, Vegas has an overabundance of hotel rooms, which keeps prices routinely low, according to Bob Diener, co-founder of Hotels.com. Travelers should be able to slip in and slip out for a weekend, from New York, for as low as $400.

Up-and-coming

Cheap destinations sometimes require travelers to be a little flexible with their comfort level. If you’re willing to cut back on common amenities and travel on a shoestring budget, you may want to consider a handful of beautiful, cheap, but potentially gritty, up-and-coming destinations. Colombia and Nicaragua head the list, according to travel blogger Amy Graff, who writes at On the Go With Amy. “Bogota is becoming safer over the years, but remains dirt cheap,” Graff says. “Bogota is on its way to becoming a popular choice for travelers looking for an inexpensive but thriving metropolis that offers world-class museums, exciting nightlife and a vibrant and unique culture.”

Nicaragua, on the other hand, “is an excellent (and much cheaper) alternative to Costa Rica or Belize for people looking for a destination rich with natural beauty, cultural activities and eco-tourism adventures.”

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Mitt Romney is an impressive man, but until now, we didn’t know just how impressive. His senior adviser, Ed Gillespie, says the presumptive Republican presidential nominee is a time traveler.

Gillespie made this surprise disclosure to CNN’s Candy Crowley on Sunday as he tried to explain why the candidate claimed to have stepped down as chief executive of Bain Capital in 1999 but the company’s filings show him in that position through 2002.

“He took a leave of absence,” Gillespie said, “and, in fact, Candy, he ended up not going back at all, and retired retroactively to February of 1999 as a result.”

Retroactive retirement! It was a brilliant formulation, perhaps the greatest addition to the political lexicon since “no controlling legal authority.”

And it raised tantalizing possibilities: If Romney can do it, perhaps others can go back in time to rearrange events.

George W. Bush could retroactively end his presidency on Sept. 1, 2008, before the financial collapse. Donald Rumsfeld could retroactively pull out of Iraq before the insurgency. President Barack Obama could retroactively deny government funding for Solyndra.

Beyond politics, the Chicago Cubs could retroactively end their 2003 season before they squandered a three-games-to-one lead in the National League Championship Series. Investors could retroactively skip Facebook’s IPO. Kim Kardashian could retroactively undo her wedding — or, better still, we could undo the Kardashians entirely.

In practice, retroactivity is not quite so simple. If it were, Sarah Palin would still be an obscure governor, Anthony Weiner wouldn’t have had a Twitter account and John Edwards wouldn’t have hired a campaign videographer.

More potent than retroactivity is the principle of pre-emption: defining your opponent before he can define himself. And for once, Democrats are doing this extremely well.

The Obama campaign’s attacks on Romney’s outsourcing, his foreign tax havens and his work at Bain are often unfair, not entirely accurate and sometimes downright mean — just as they should be.

Obama, in Cincinnati on Monday, continued to apply his boot to his opponent’s neck.

“I’ve got to be honest,” he told his supporters. “Today we found out there’s a new study out by nonpartisan economists that says Gov. Romney’s economic plan would, in fact, create 800,000 jobs.”

The crowd was quiet until Obama said, with a laugh: “There’s only one problem. The jobs wouldn’t be in America.”

Then the president renewed his Bain attack.

“This shouldn’t be a surprise, because Gov. Romney’s experience has been investing in what were called pioneers of the business of outsourcing,” he said.

The “new study out by nonpartisan economists” was an article written by an academic at Reed College in Oregon that didn’t mention Romney. It said a territorial tax system, which Romney favors, would increase jobs in low-tax countries by about 800,000 — but it also said reducing effective tax rates, which Romney supports, would change things.

Still, if the veracity is in doubt, the political utility is not. We know the attack is working because Karl Rove says it isn’t. He called it a “big mistake” to suggest, as Obama aide Stephanie Cutter did, that Romney might have committed a felony in misleading the Securities and Exchange Commission. This, Rove told Fox News, is “gutter politics of the worst Chicago sort.”

Rove is well-qualified to weigh in on such matters, having presided over Bush’s 2004 campaign, during which opponent John Kerry was accused of lying about his war record. Some of those who funded the attacks on Kerry are now bankrolling Rove’s assaults on Obama.

This isn’t to excuse Obama for stretching the truth about Romney. But those who portrayed the president as a Muslim radical who pals around with terrorists aren’t in a good position to be complaining that Romney is being painted as a vulture capitalist.

Yesterday, Gillespie tried, in a conference call with reporters, to redirect attention back to Obama’s “Chicago-style” crony politics. But Maeve Reston of the Los Angeles Times brought the questioning back to Romney’s “fine distinctions about his role at Bain.”

“Maeve, I don’t think the distinctions are that fine,” Gillespie protested. He said Romney’s campaign is “going to treat voters with more respect” than the Democrats are.

Good luck with that, Ed, but piety seldom pays. A better strategy would be for Romney to get back in the time machine and eliminate the phrase “retired retroactively” from the record. While in the past, he might also pause long enough to take his dog Seamus off the car roof.

Dana Milbank writes for The Washington Post.

Copyright 2012 By DANA MILBANK All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Wed Jul 18, 2012 11:18pm IST

By Mitch Lipka

July 18 (Reuters) – Justin Yax has booked plenty of trips
himself using myriad online travel sites. But for a tour of
Italy in 2009 and his honeymoon trip to the South Pacific next
month, he went old-school and turned to a travel agent.

“There’s greater comfort when talking to somebody – a real
person,” says Yax, a partner in a Bend, Oregon advertising
agency. “It’s not just putting something in a shopping cart and
checking out.”

Yax, 40, is not alone as travel agencies enjoy a turnaround.

Agencies had been suffering from years of declines as online
travel sites – including Expedia Inc, Travelocity and
Priceline.com Inc – took root.

Also, consolidation decreased the number of visible
storefront offices, and many of the remaining agents switched to
a lower-overhead work-from-home model, says Nina Meyer,
president of the American Society of Travel Agents.

“The industry sat back for a while and said: ‘Woe is me,’”
she says.

Over the past couple of years, though, the pendulum swung
back, and business is growing again – for many in leaps and
bounds, she says.

Agencies made $95 billion in sales in 2011 – about one-third
of the U.S. travel market, according to Connecticut-based travel
research company PhoCusWright. While the majority of the revenue
comes from business travel, the leisure segment still accounts
from more than $20 billion.

At American Express Travel, Vice President David Patron says
bookings through agents were up 12 percent in the first half of
2012 from a year earlier. The company is neck-and-neck with
Expedia as the U.S. market leader, according to the Travel
Weekly Power List.

Surprisingly, Generation Y – consumers in their late 20s -
accounts for the biggest percentage of business at traditional
agencies, according to Mandala Research LLC.

Some of that, Meyer says, is due to an increase in the
number of young people who have gotten into the business as
agents and are drawing clients from their own generation.

A STEP UP

The move toward human-booked travel does not mean the
websites are hurting, however. Even people like Yax, who use
travel agencies, still book their less complex trips online.

But what is clear from interviews with numerous travel
agency executives is that the in-person business has changed to
one that is, in many cases, similar to how investors use
financial advisers.

In fact, many in the travel business want to be known as
advisers or consultants rather than agents. They play up the
idea that they are managing both your time and your vacation
investment instead of just booking packages and getting tickets.

Some build on a specific expertise by serving a niche -
anything from catering to the wealthy to specializing in scuba
diving trips, religious pilgrimages, cruises or specific places.

And they want consumers to know they are a one-stop solution
when a problem arises.

Meyer and others in the industry say one common thread among
newer clients is their need for someone to sort out the sheer
volume of information on the Web.

“What we’re seeing is more of an indication of information
overload,” says Dwain Wall, senior vice president of Fort
Lauderdale, Florida-based CruiseOne, which has 750 franchisees
and another 500 contracted independent agents. “I think
consumers are more confused when they’re done than when they
start  and what information they can trust when they’re on the
Web.”

BUILDING RELATIONSHIPS

Service costs, of course. Some agencies that provide as much
advice as bookings will charge a fee on top of commissions.

High-end Frontiers Travel in Wexford, Pennsylvania, for
example, will collect about $250 for planning the typical
weeklong trip itinerary. Other agencies have a sliding fee, and
all say they will charge more when booking something complex,
like a destination wedding.

But the agents say their clients accept the cost in exchange
for saving time and getting someone who is plugged into their
destination to be sure all the pieces are in place. That could
be anything from hiring a guide familiar with the Paris antiques
scene to scoring a last-minute room in London for the Olympics.

Business has never been better at Frontiers, which relies
heavily on its relationships with the destinations, co-owner
Mollie Fitzgerald says. High-rollers continue to roll high, she
says, noting the recent booking of a last-minute, $64,000 trip
around the world.

“Most of us lead busy lives and would pay a professional for
expert advice – think doing your own taxes versus using a CPA,”
says John Clifford, a travel consultant with
InternationalTravelManagement.com. “Yes, you’ll pay a
professional fee, but can often save several times that amount
in the end.”

Interior designer Phyllis Harbinger, 49, says she used a
travel agent because she experienced one too many fouled-up
reservations with online services.

“I’m a great traveler, and I’ve been all over the world,”
she says. “But I don’t know who has the best amenities. Having
that trust factor and having the trusted adviser , that’s worth
gold.”

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NEW YORK, July 18, 2012 — /PRNewswire/ – Today, The Vagabond Project will launch its Hong Kong Beijing web-based travel series, which captures show host Millana Snow, winning model of Project Runway Season Eight, visiting the best stops for young travelers.

(Photo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20120718/NY41121 )

Showcasing all things from art, music, nightlife, fashion, food, architecture, traditional culture, people and lifestyles, the series is comprised of 42 webisodes that will be released every Monday, Wednesday and Friday at 12pm EST over the following weeks. Six webisodes will debut on Wednesday, July 18th to kick-start the launch of the Hong Kong Beijing series.

The Vagabond Project is a social video initiative that aims to bridge the gap between tourism boards, global businesses and passionate wanderlusts through Branded Entertainment. From shared stories to curating content through social crowd-sourcing, this youth-driven operation is taking travel content to a new tech-focused platform, where viewers are able to access series content through streaming video on iPhones, iPads and other mobile devices.

It’s been three months since the Digital Content NewFronts, a gathering of the social elite from Facebook, Google, YouTube, Yahoo, Microsoft, AOL, and Hulu, to encourage brands and agencies to go digital with their ad dollars; showcasing new channels and original content within the categories of pop culture, comedy, fashion, tech and music. The Vagabond Project sets to produce original travel content for tourism boards and global businesses looking to harness the power of these web-based video communities.  

Throughout the launch, The Vagabond Project will initiate guerrilla and grass roots marketing campaigns to continue to drive social buzz and work to build future partnerships with multiple distribution platforms for future series.

Website: http://thevagabondproject.tv

Video Trailer: http://youtu.be/Iqn1moPOXwM OR http://vimeo.com/vagabondproj/launch

About The Vagabond Project  The Vagabond Project is a web-based video collective that features eclectic, international travel experiences around popular Gen-Y subcultures. The Vagabond Project is non-critical, apolitical and curates a showcase of positive attributes of a given culture, city or country. Founded by Courtney Haefner and Brian Arcese in 2011, it is their Project’s mission to inspire and share the world through new, unconventional perspectives via webisodes. The Vagabond Project is committed to being a cultural entity built upon authenticity, originality, creativity and honesty that creates opportunities for the Gen-Y community to engage in international culture and above all inspires this new generation to travel the world.

SOURCE The Vagabond Project

To celebrate the launch of the Croatia travel section on its website Select Italy is offering all travel agents a special commission for a limited time only on all services and accommodation in Croatia

Chicago, IL (PRWEB) July 17, 2012

For centuries those most enterprising of Italians, the Venetians, ruled the Dalmatian coast of what is now Croatia. This gorgeous Mediterranean expanse of islands, aquamarine waters and historic, UNESCO World Heritage-listed cities has timeless appeal, and Select Italy – yes, Select Italy — can show you expertly how, and precisely where.

Recently chosen as among the most interesting and upcoming European destinations of 2012, according to the U.S. research company Travel Leaders Franchise Group, heretofore unsung Croatia has actually been on the Select Italy radar for nearly half a decade — company President Andrea Sertoli, ten-time Travel Leisure A-List Travel Agent, foresaw the potential of this “land of thousand islands” as a desirable destination.

While Select Italy remains The Ultimate Source for Travel to Italy® , the company is doing more than giving a passing glance to points east. The Chicago-based travel company has launched the latest addition to the recently revamped website, Selectitaly.com/Croatia, a brand new section completely dedicated to Croatia travel, offering a unique combination of services to travelers and travel agents.

From sailing in Split, or sightseeing in stunning Dubrovnik, or hiking along the Plitvice Lakes, Select Italy will assemble a Croatian vacation to remember thanks to a team comprised of not only native Italian and American travel professionals, but native Croatian travel pros, too. Individual clients and industry professionals alike will now able to experience the same high level of professionalism that has set Select Italy apart for the past 15 years.

“We have been working with custom itineraries in Croatia for quite a few years now,” says Andrea Guglielmino, Select Italy’s Director of Digital Marketing. “The creation of a dedicated section on our new Website was the natural evolution of this. With its user-friendly interface, now Travelers can easily reach out to our travel experts and start planning their travel to Croatia.”

The new Croatian component gives travelers all of the essential trip planning tools that they need to create their dream vacation, with ease of booking individual tours with maritime, wine, food, and many other themes and services. Recommendations and tips from the locals, vouchers, and brochures are included with every travel package so that customers can stay informed while both en route and after arrival.

To learn more about Select Italy’s new Croatia page or other travel opportunities visit http://Selectitaly.com/Croatia

About Select Italy

Select Italy is The Ultimate Source for Travel to Italy® and offers a wide array of superior Italian travel products and services, including customized itineraries, state-of-the-art tours and packages, wedding/honeymoon trips, unique culinary classes, a complete pre-departure ticketing service for museums and musical events, private guided services, yacht charters, transportation, hotel reservations, villa bookings and more. Through a vast network of suppliers and cultural contacts, anything and everything you need for optimum Italian travel — and now Croatian travel, too – is possible at Select Italy.

Based in Chicago with an office in New York and representatives in Italy, in 2010 Select Italy opened a full-service branch in Shanghai, China. For more information call (800) 877-1755 or visit http://selectitaly.com.

For the original version on PRWeb visit: http://www.prweb.com/releases/prwebSelect-Italy-Travel/Croatia-Vacation-Tour/prweb8737524.htm

It can snag your time, ruin your photos and cramp your style on vacation: wrinkled clothes.

Depending on accommodations and trip itineraries, there may or may not be time to deal with creased clothes while traveling. Looking sharp on the road isn’t impossible and doesn’t have to be troublesome – if you pack strategically.

“If you’re away from home, you might not have access to the same tools you’d normally use to fix the issue, so it’s best to think ahead and pack clothing that won’t easily wrinkle,” said Lindsay Weiner, a certified image consultant and former assistant stylist on TLC’s show, “What Not to Wear.”

Weiner is also the founder of StyleMeAsap.com – a company focused on helping people stylize and organize their wardrobes. She says knowing what to or what not to pack will either scrunch up or smooth out your wardrobe options on vacation.

Materials and Brands to Pack

Picking clothing made of the right type of material can make a huge difference in terms of how well the items will travel.

“Knits are often the best option for travel because they are lightweight and less likely to wrinkle,” Weiner said. “Anything with stretch in it is also perfect for travel because the Lycra helps the garment keep its shape and prevents it from wrinkling when the item is packed.”

Non-iron or wrinkle-resistant clothing is also a good option. Even though those items might become slightly creased while traveling, a quick spritz of water and a few minutes in a steamy bathroom can fix those lines quickly.

“There are also brands such as Travelsmith, Chico’s and J.Jill that have clothes specifically designed for travel, so wrinkles won’t be an issue with these garments,” Weiner said. “For men, Brooks Brothers, Charles Tyrwhitt, and Banana Republic all have good and varied selections of ‘no iron’ shirts and pants that are not only perfect for everyday wear, but also travel.”

Fashion experts say non-iron clothes are pre-treated to create the wrinkle-free effect. In turn, those items might require more gentle washing to retain the smooth look.

“The finish will wear off if dried with fabric softeners or if treated with specific chemicals, so people should make sure they consult their dry-cleaner about this if they send them out,” said Natalie Holloway, the co-founder of Buttoned Up Style – a New York City-based image consulting and personal shopping firm.

A wrinkle-resistant look can also be found in fashion apparel made with bamboo-blended fabrics.

From hoodies to dresses, the Aventura Clothing line features a selection of items made with rayon from bamboo.

“Although they may wrinkle some when packed, the wrinkles fall out relatively easily,” said Kathleen Williamson, the head merchandiser at Aventura Clothing. “I think what makes them great travel pieces are the fact that they are so comfortable and multi-functional; they can be worn during the day as a casual outfit, or dressed up with great accessories for a night out. Bamboo naturally has wonderful wicking properties and is partially antimicrobial – two things that are great for humid climates.”

For women who don’t want to think about which items to pack or coordinate together on vacation, the “Chick On the Go” travel wardrobe is an easy alternative. Designers of the fashion line say the seven piece combination, which includes five garments and two accessories, can create 25 different outfit combinations from loungewear to elegant social attire.

“Chick On The Go allows women to have an entire packed wardrobe at their fingertips,” said Cheryl Filkowski, the co-founder of Chick on the Go. “No need to stress over packing, no over-packing, no cumbersome luggage, no baggage fees and no possibility to arrive at your destination without your luggage. While other companies have travel friendly clothing, no one has a a whole coordinating wardrobe packed and ready to go.

“In addition, our garments do not need to be ironed or steamed. Just simply hang the garments after unpacking and wear… This allows for great recovery, stretchability and comfort.”

Putting it in the Suitcase

Instead of folding buttoned-up shirts and similar items that you would never put in a drawer at home, try rolling the items before packing them in your bag.

“Doing this is gentler on clothes and eliminates the creases caused by folding and it’s also a great space saver,” Weiner said. “Wrapping clothes in plastic dry cleaning bags is also an excellent way to avoid wrinkles, as the plastic reduces the friction that causes the problem.”

Treating Clothes on Vacation

It’s not just about buying the right type of clothes or packing the proper way. After arriving at your destination, try to unpack and hang up your vacation wardrobe promptly.

“If your clothes have become wrinkled in your luggage, the downward pull of hanging up the items should fix it,” Weiner said. “For more intense wrinkles, turn your bathroom into a steamer. Hang the garment in a place that it won’t get wet, then turn the shower on and make it as hot as possible. Shut the door and leave the water going for about 5-15 minutes. The room will get steamy and remove the wrinkles from the item.”

If you’re looking for a little extra help with getting rid of those lines and want to avoid using an iron, consider packing the Downy Wrinkle Releaser spray. It is available in a travel size bottle. To use, simply spray the clothing item, shake it or pull gently to release the wrinkles. 

“Combine this with the shower technique, and wrinkled clothes will definitely be a thing of the past,” Weiner said.

Each day at lunch Amy Le faces the same dilemma as she looks for a spot to park her bright green food truck in downtown Chicago. She needs a space close enough to hungry office workers but far enough away from the restaurants she knows will call police if she gets too close to their doors.

She finds a loading zone and sends out a tweet to her regular Duck N Roll customers so they can find the truck and buy her pre-cooked Vietnamese-inspired duck sandwiches before a police officer — who she worries might also be reading her tweets — notices she’s parked illegally.

It’s a calculated risk that Le is willing to take to sell her sandwiches. “I’m constantly looking over my shoulder for a police officer,” she said.

Though Chicago is increasingly known for its high-end restaurants, it lags behind other cities across the country when it comes to the food truck craze. The colorful trucks with their niche menus can operate here, but they are not full-service — meaning chefs can’t cook and prepare food onboard — and they are governed by strict rules prohibiting them from parking within 200 feet from a restaurant.

After years of debate, the rules may be changing. Mayor Rahm Emanuel, who doesn’t like the idea of Chicago lagging behind pretty much anything, is hoping to make it easier for food trucks to operate in the city, while at the same time appeasing brick-and-mortar restaurants that have long been opposed to the mobile kitchens.

His aim seems simple enough. But this is Chicago, a city of no small rivalries, where lawn chairs sprout up in parking spots after snowstorms and flat tires await those who move them anyway — testimony to the serious business of reserving space on crowded streets.

Though Emanuel’s proposed ordinance would finally allow trucks to cook and prepare food onboard and would create parking zones around the city, it doesn’t eliminate the 200-feet rule, quadruples the maximum fine for setting up shop inside that zone to $2,000 and would require trucks to carry GPS devices to track their every move. Some see the ordinance as a compromise, but others believe it still falls short and could lead to a prolonged turf battle between restaurant owners — who claim the trucks have an unfair advantage because they don’t pay for things like property taxes and rent — and the truck operators.

“I think what’s going to happen more than anything is there are going to be confrontations between restaurant owners and the food truck operators,” said Glenn Keefer, the owner of Keefer’s, a restaurant in the trendy River North area.

Though the food truck debate has been brewing for years in Chicago, it only started gaining momentum when Emanuel became mayor last year. Just as Wrigley Field was the last major league park to install lights and Chicago was slow to join the craft beer craze that ran wild in other cities, the Windy City does things at its own pace. With fewer than 60 food trucks, Chicago lags far behind cities like Austin, Texas, and Los Angeles, where there are hundreds and sometimes more than 1,000 of them.

That irked Emanuel.

“Fifty other communities around the country have figured out how to deal with food trucks,” Emanuel said last month. “We were sitting around as a city with restaurants saying, ‘No way,’ and food truck operators saying, ‘No rules,’ and … as far as I could see going nowhere fast.”

Some in the restaurant industry believe the proposed ordinance addresses their concerns.

“I was not in favor of food trucks, (but) the ordinance they are putting forward addressed a lot of issues (restaurant) people have,” said Grant DePorter, CEO of Harry Caray’s Restaurant Group.

Others, such as Keefer, say it doesn’t go far enough. He wants the trucks banned from downtown altogether except for the dedicated parking zones.

“We are paying for the Fire Department, Police Department, streets and sanitation, schools, in the form of $70,000 a year in property taxes,” said Keefer. “When you add all these fees up it is phenomenal and theirs are minuscule.”

But food truck owners say the proposed ordinance favors Goliath over David.

“Without lifting that 200-foot rule it will be almost impossible for people to sustain a business,” said Tiffany Kurtz, the owner of Flirty Cupcakes, which sells designer cupcakes with names like Paradise Island from a pale blue truck.

Le said the GPS requirement will certainly mean being ticketed whether she does anything wrong.

“I do catering all the time to businesses that are next to restaurants. So if I pull up and drop off a catering order, a restaurant owner can call the cops on me,” she said.

Truck operators say they feel the GPS and 200-feet requirements are a result of the restaurant industry’s political influence, or clout as they call it here.

“It feels like a lot is being done to protect them that you don’t see in other industries,” said Kurtz, who also owns a bakery in the city’s Little Italy neighborhood. “You look at Peapod (and) they’re not saying, ‘You cannot deliver five blocks from a grocery store.”‘

On Thursday, a City Council committee is expected to hear the mayor’s ordinance and food truck and restaurant owners will have their chance to make their case. The full council could vote on the proposal as soon as next week.

Alderman Scott Waguespack, who drafted his own ordinance before the mayor submitted his, has a message for food truck operations: Accept the ordinance and fight the parts they don’t like in court. In Los Angeles, a rule regulating how close food trucks could park to restaurants was thrown out of court years ago. Last year in El Paso, Texas, officials did the same thing after a federal lawsuit challenged its 1,000-foot rule.

As for Keefer, even as he’s fighting the food truck operators he’s thinking about joining them. He even bought a domain name — WeckWagon.com — named after a beef sandwich he sells.

“Before I open up another cafe I would certainly get a food truck,” he said. “I didn’t buy a domain name for nothing.”