Any place, any time you put some grub in front of me and you best believe I’m taking care of it. I’m the president of the clean-plate club. A human garbage disposal.

So of course when I found out the East Lansing City Council OK’d a resolution allowing food trucks in the city’s downtown area, well, the term giddy as a schoolboy would have been appropriate.

I experienced the taco trucks of Los Angeles for the first time two years ago and I’ve been hooked ever since. I am one of those students that is willing to cross U.S. Route 127 to grab a bite from El Oasis or Trailer Park’d, but having one within walking distance is icing on the cake.

As a food fanatic I’m ecstatic. However, as a man of logic, the council’s decision just doesn’t pass the smell test for me.

Recent history has shown most of the businesses that seem to be able to survive in East Lansing are restaurants. Scavenger Hunt, The Refinery and Sparthai Laundry are some of the more recent examples of non-restaurants to fail in the city.

Even seemingly popular restaurants like the National Coney Island Station couldn’t withstand the crippling summer lulls in East Lansing, an issue that seems to be affecting What Up Dawg?, 317 M.A.C. Ave., which is taking a summer hiatus.

By allowing food trucks into East Lansing, the city council is severely jeopardizing its primary industry. For less than $2,000 would-be food truck entrepreneurs can operate in the city. I’m betting a successful truck could make that back on its opening weekend.

Food trucks don’t pay property taxes, they are not held to the safe health codes as brick-and-mortar establishments and they provide little to nothing in terms of employment opportunities.

Why would downtown visitors choose to deal with longer wait times and pay more money for food they could just as easily pick up from a truck?

We’re talking about a college town, here. The lowest common denominator always is convenience. “Give me something quick and make it cheap.”

Will this bankrupt every single restaurant in the city? Absolutely not.

Will it cut into a lot of restaurants’ bottom lines? You bet it will. Could it push some restaurants that are teetering over the edge? I wouldn’t be surprised.

East Lansing is shooting itself in the foot on this one.

Restaurant owners in the city are not thrilled about this new resolution, and frankly they shouldn’t be. Downtown East Lansing is too small for these trucks not to impact restaurants, not to mention that city officials thought it would a good idea to zone the trucks to a location in the heart of the restaurant district.

If downtown East Lansing was bigger or if the city chose to zone the food truck area differently perhaps this would not be an issue.

Alternatives that are still close to downtown but not conflicting with established restaurants would be the Bailey Community Center, 300 Bailey St., or Valley Court Park, 300 Valley Court. Both locations are open, there are places to sit and they are within walking distance of campus.

Food trucks don’t need to be in the heart of downtown to be successful. Look at El Oasis, which is a good two miles from the heart of downtown Lansing.

Zoning food trucks to either Bailey Community Center or Valley Court would allow the trucks to establish a fanbase without endangering established restaurants.

Those locations might also get students to explore more of the city. I’m sure plenty of students couldn’t even point out either location on the map even though I’m sure plenty have attended house parties less than 20 feet away.

Food trucks could be used as a means of diversifying the city as a whole, but instead they will only further detract from an already floundering downtown district.

The one silver lining is that the council had enough foresight to reserve the right to evaluate the resolution annually, let’s hope the damage to the downtown area is not too severe at that point.

Kyle Campbell is a guest columnist at The State News and a journalism senior. Reach him at campb659@msu.edu.