Cambridge, MA Food Trucks & Mobile Vendors: Vending Zones (2026)

060 of the Cambridge Municipal Code draws a defined perimeter, running along Memorial Drive from the Western Avenue Bridge through Hawthorn Street, Mount Auburn Street, Ash Street, Mason Street, Garden Street, Chauncy Street, Everett Street, Oxford Street, Kirkland Street, Trowbridge Street, Putnam Square, Putnam Avenue and Western Avenue back to the bridge, and bars anyone from hawking, peddling, selling, exposing for sale, distributing or giving away goods, wares or merchandise anywhere inside it. That sweeps in the Harvard Square core and the Memorial Drive riverfront.

The only way around the ban is a permit issued by the Chief of Police, or authorization under Chapter 101 of the General Laws; the section carves out one exception for selling newspapers, which the restricted-area ban does not reach at all. Because the ban covers 'goods, wares or merchandise' generally, it applies to mobile food vending inside the zone exactly as it applies to any other peddling, meaning a food cart or truck operating inside that perimeter needs the Chief of Police's permit rather than relying on the Board of License Commissioners' food-hawking license alone.