Kudos to The Associated Press for being the first nationwide news organization to cover the first ticketing of LA County taco trucks.

AP:

A truck called La Flor de Sahuayo was cited Wednesday by the parking enforcement detail after neighbors filed 20 complaints about it the past four months, said Sheriff’s Lt. Linda Martinez, who declined to detail the complaints.

Alejandro Valdovino, who owns the truck, said he parks it in front of his restaurant in East Los Angeles.

“The policeman arrived with the citation in his hand,” Valdovino said in Spanish in a phone interview Friday. “He didn’t tell me to move. He just came and handed me the ticket.”

“It’s not right what they’re doing,” he said.

Phillip Greenwald, a lawyer who has consulted with taco truck owners, said Valdovino received a misdemeanor citation, and faces up to a $1,000 fine and six months in jail if convicted.

We’ll have an interview with Philip Greenwald next week, and with Northern California taco truck attorney David LeBeouf.

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Well, we’ve got our new law served now with a side of tickets — La Flor de Suhayo got hit by LA County Sheriff’s deputies earlier this week.

The LA Times notes that Hoy, a Spanish-language daily in LA first reported the story (link in Spanish).

Here’s the Google machine translation:

East Los Angeles – has already started nightmare for many owners of “loncheras” of East Los Angeles, after the authorities fine, apparently for the first time, one of the owners of these businesses rolling for longer stay what is allowed in one place.

“The whole week had been working normally, each passing the ‘ticketera’ I moved and then returned to the place,” he told TODAY Alejandro Valdoviño, owner of the “lunch box” The Flower of Sahuayo, who was an infringement by agents of the Department of Sheriff.

Valdoviño explained that he parks their “lunch box” just in front of a restaurant owned bearing the same name. “Yesterday I had not even time to move, the police just came to the offense in his hand. I said that I move, and came just handed me the ticket, “he added Valdoviño adding that unknown quantity that will have to pay the fine because it does not specify the figure only indicates that they will have to present in court.

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I did my own mini taco crawl in Modesto last week, exploring three of the five trucks parked next to one another on the corner of 8th St. and H St.

Here are their names, from H St. towards I St.:

El Super Taco (only one that advertised mariscos)
Los Portalitos
El Mexicano “C”
Adriana’s Super Tacos
F.K. Jessica’s No. 1

Sadly, I only had time for the last three, but enjoyed them very much, especially F.K. Jessica’s, which had really sweet pastor. Also had a pretty good jamaica at El Mexicano, as they were out of horchata.

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Amigos, our taco trucks are being attacked once again, but this time in North Carolina.

Now I’m not as familiar with North Carolina law regarding this matter, but I’ve scoured the North Carolina Chapter 20 law as it pertains to motor vehicles and haven’t found any provisions like our Section 22455 here in the Golden State.

The Charlotte Observer reports:

Some police and public officials have complained that the taco trucks that line South Boulevard and Central Avenue near immigrant neighborhoods attract crime. Neighbors have complained of noise, traffic problems and fumes.

Katrina Young, zoning administrator for the Charlotte Zoning Board of Adjustment, said the proposed ordinance provides greater flexibility to mobile vendors than current regulations while protecting residents who live close by.

Terms of the ordinance, which the council voted to send to its public safety committee for a recommendation, include:

• Limiting mobile food vendors to a maximum of 90 days in one location each year.
• Outlawing operation within 400 feet of a residential district.
• Operating hours would be between 8 a.m. and 9 p.m.

“It’s an effort to provide more time for mobile food vendors and protect neighborhoods affected by them,” Young said. “Move them more into the business area.”

“Protect neighborhoods” ? Please. We’re talking about tacos here.

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My friends, taco trucks are not just under attack in Los Angeles, but also in Taft, Calif., just outside Bakersfield.

Apparently in the late 1930s, a replica of Sutter’s Fort (in Sacramento, Calif.) was constructed in the fair city of Taft. While it’s not immediately clear to me why a 19th century fort needed to be rebuilt 300 miles away in a small town of less than 10,000 people, that’s not the point here. The point here is that for now, a taco truck called Janie’s Mexican food is being allowed to stay, after being under threat by the city. Again, city staff alleged that it had an “unfair advantage” than traditional brick-and-mortar restaurants. How is selling a better product at a lower price “unfair” ? Please.

Here’s the Taft Midway Driller:

The business, which serves food out of a trailer, was in danger of being forced to leave its place in the Fort’s parking lot when Taft City staff decided it was not in compliance with city codes and had an unfair advantage over businesses in permanent buildings.

But the staff reversed their recommendation Tuesday night and the Taft planning Commission voted 4-0 to approve a precise development permit to allow the trailer to park at the Fort on weekdays to sell tacos and other Mexican food for at least one more year. The vote came after Commissioner Curtis Walchock offered a compromise – approve her permit for a year. By that time, City planner Lawrence Tomasello had told the commission, the city will have a new code to permit temporary business on an annual basis for up to five years.

If they approved the trailer with no time provisions, Tomasello said, she said have permanent status.

Tomasello quickly would staff would change it’s recommendation with that provision.

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Despite all the idiocy in this new LA County law restricting taco trucks, The Associated Press reports that the law may not be enforced very strongly and many taco truckers would continue to serve their tacos as they have been for years in a bout of carnitas-fueled civil disobedience.

AP:

Several taco truckers said they would simply ignore it, and a spokesman for the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department indicated deputies wouldn’t exactly be racing to enforce it.

In addition to fines, violators could be jailed for up to six months if they don’t move their truck within an hour of parking it. Under the old law, they had to move every 30 minutes, but few did because the penalty was only $60.

In heavily Hispanic East Los Angeles, where eating carnitas, quesadillas, cemitas and other Latin-flavored delicacies purchased from a lunch wagon is practically a rite of passage, people were as hot about the issue as a plate of carne asada.

“What? That’s terrible! That’s terrible!” shouted Roy Mendoza, upon learning that the Tacos El Galuzo truck he and his family have been patronizing for years might have to start hopscotching around town.

. . .

In fact, Mendoza said, the truck is cleaner, serves better food and at about half the price than many of the nearby restaurants he’s been in.

“It’s not about the restaurants. It’s about the food. We go where the food is good,” he said.

When the law was adopted on April 15, local business people said it was about the competition restaurants faced from truckers. Restaurateurs had complained for years that with little overhead costs, the truckers were eating their lunch.

“Look around, what do you think? They take away a lot of my business,” said Hor Lee, gesturing to her empty restaurant’s seating area. She has operated the Chinatown Express in a strip mall just a half-mile down the street from Torres’ truck for 11 years. Business was fine until about a year ago, she said, when two other trucks moved just around the corner from her.

“My rent is almost $5,000 a month,” she said. “We pay for electricity. We pay for workers. We pay a lot of bills. I think the taco trucks pay maybe only one bill, for a permit. It’s not fair.”

But Torres, who also wasn’t moving his vehicle, said he has far more costs than the average person realizes, starting with the $65,000 he paid for his truck. He also must pay to insure it, pay for a business license and a Health Department permit, and pay a local commissary for overnight parking.

Then there are food and employee costs and the rent he pays to the stereo store so his customers can use its parking lot.

On Wednesday night, he was a man in perpetual motion, fueling the generator that powers his stove, unloading cases of soda and water, and helping his son take orders in Spanish and English. Meanwhile, two employees grilled up huge portions of pork and beef as a steady flow of customers surrounded him.

Sheriff’s spokesman Steve Whitmore said Thursday that deputies “certainly will enforce the law, but whether or not this will be a priority may be another question.”

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Vallejo’s Times-Herald is getting on the bandwagon, providing some positive taco truck news for once. Apparently the paper has just discovered that Vallejo’s got great taco trucks of its own.

The Times-Herald writes:

There’s another draw, too: trucks are cheap. At just over a buck per taco, dinner and drinks for two probably won’t top $10.

“People in Vallejo, we watch our money,” said Matt King, a tow truck driver who eats at a truck about once a week. King is something of a taco truck connoisseur; he has his favorites, but he’ll go to whichever truck is closest to where he happens to be – and he knows what to order at each one.

On a recent Tuesday evening, King sang the praises of the burrito from Dos Hermanos, at Sereno Drive and Sonoma Boulevard. At about $3, it’s one of the best deals in town, he said.

A few months back, I did my own mini crawl through some Vallejo spots, and hit Dos Hermanos. You can check out my photos here.

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In the transcript of the April 8 and 15 meetings of the LA County Board of Supervisors, it seems pretty clear to me that the only people interested in going after the taco trucks is Supervisor Gloria Molina and María Verdyzco-Smith, the President of the Lennox Coordinating Council, and Louis Herrera, President of the Greater East Los Angeles Chamber of Commerce. As best as I can tell, there’s a lot of people who are supporting the taco trucks, and there’s a great deal of testimony from the truck operators themselves. Basically, the anti-truck crowd spends a lot of time talking about how it’s “unfair” to restaurants, but don’t make the case as to how it’s actually illegal.

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Just to be clear, when referring to the relevant portions of the California Vehicle Code and the Los Angeles County Code applicable to taco trucks, here is the actual text of the law:

California Vehicle Code 22455:

Vending from Vehicles

22455. (a) The driver of any commercial vehicle engaged in vending upon a street may vend products on a street in a residence district only after bringing the vehicle to a complete stop and lawfully ( )1 parking adjacent to the curb, consistent with the requirements of Chapter 9 (commencing with Section 22500) and local ordinances adopted pursuant thereto.

(b) ( )2 Notwithstanding subdivision (a) of Section 114315 of the Health and Safety Code or any other provision of law, a local authority may, by ordinance or resolution, adopt additional requirements for the public safety regulating the type of vending and the time, place, and manner of vending from vehicles upon any street.

Amended Sec. 3, Ch. 139, Stats. 2008. Effective January 1, 2009.
The 2008 amendment added the italicized material, and at the point(s) indicated, deleted the following:

1. “parked”
2. “A local authority may, by ordinance or resolution, adopt additional requirements for the public safety regulating any type of vending from vehicles upon any street.”

And the newly adopted Los Angeles County Code 7.62.070:

7.62.070 Peddlers of edible products from commercial vehicles–Moving location required when.

A person engaged in the business of peddling liquids or edibles for human consumption from commercial vehicles used for the transportation and/or the preparation of food, either retail or wholesale, pursuant to a license obtained pursuant to this chapter, shall not remain or permit such vehicle to remain in any one location for the purpose of sale or display of such liquids or edibles for more than 30 minutes in a residential zone, or 60 minutes in a non-residential zone, during any three-hour period and shall not return to any location within one-half mile of each prior location where the person sold or displayed liquids or edibles within said three-hour period. Said three-hour period shall commence upon the Peddler’s departure from the last location where peddling occurred. Any person described in this section, during all of the time which he or she is at any such location, shall maintain the location in a neat and orderly condition, pick up and dispose in a sanitary manner all debris, garbage, papers, litter and other things which detract from the sanitation, safety and appearance of such premises, and otherwise comply with the California Health and Safety Code. (Ord. 2008-0013 § 5, 2008: Ord. 92-0132 § 47, 1992: Ord. 8424 § 1, 1963: Ord. 8285 § 1, 1962: Ord. 5860 Ch. 2 Art. 12 § 604, 1951.)

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An Aussie who used to live in LA is informing his countrymen Down Under about this culinary travesty that is going on across the Pacific.

SBS:

My small reprieve from the malnutrition was the local taco truck whose main clientele were the local immigrant workers on a survival level diet with the taste for a piece of home. I was introduced to the forbidden pleasure of the chiccarones taco, a taco singularly filled with fried pork crackling. I developed a theory that if the taco truck didn’t offer cabeza (roasted cow head) then the van was not worth its garish paintjob, even if you had no plan to eat said cow or the van had it on the menu but didn’t actually ever serve it. I came to suspect that it was a simple code to differentiate between the good taco truck and the evil. This is the sort of madness induced by access to meat after unwillingly enduring a low protein diet.

It is hard for me to think of a more iconic Californian food experience than chowing down on a fresh taco with a squeeze of lime, served from a vehicle that is essentially immobile.

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