Permit Me Please 

I haven't written one of these in a while... but the Journal has handed me one on a silver platter. Apparently no ice cream truck has been legal in the City of Brookfielf for nearly 10 years:

The vendors and their chime music so familiar elsewhere are not quite illegal in Brookfield but are as close to it as anywhere in the area.

In a business in which drivers can expect to make $60 to $80 per day, Brookfield charges $200 for a license and has a police lieutenant conduct a background check more thorough than for someone applying for a liquor license, according to City Clerk Kristine Schmidt.

Or at least that would be the case if anyone ever applied.

"We usually have a joke around here about trying to find the ice cream vendor during the summer," Schmidt said. "I don't believe we've ever had a license, but we have always had ice cream vendor sightings."

Brookfield's ordinance, adopted in 1996, is one of the strictest in the area. Since it went into effect, not one person seeking to drive an ice cream truck in the city has applied to do so. Meanwhile, across W. Hampton Ave. in Menomonee Falls, all one has to do to drive an ice cream truck legally is pay $30 and have the vehicle inspected by the Waukesha County Health Department.

It should be noted that riding your bicycle while eating an ice cream cone is also illegal (Riding While Eating Ice Cream, or RWEIC in "Police Speak"), and is punishable by 30 days in jail, and revocation of your bicycling license. You knew they had those licenses in Brookfield right?