News of innovative types of taco trucks are probably one of the best things that I could receive this year for Christmas. A smile crept across my face when I read about this new taco truck parked in a residential neighborhood:

El Nutri Taco owners Gabina Lopez and Chencho Martinez are pleased to have achieved a successful business literally in their front yard. Although the majority of properties on Woodstock east of 50th are single-family residences, this family has permission from the city for the setup.

Now free of debt, Martinez had borrowed from his brother to buy the truck and used a Home Depot credit card to build out his porch to the street. “My American dream is starting to take shape,” he said.

But soon after the business opened in March, the city got an earful from complaining neighbors. Because the cart was legally in a commercial zone, an immediate order to close the business was not an option.

If any Oregon readers are up near this truck, please do let me know how good the tacos are! Also, be sure to send photos to cfarivar [at] cfarivar [dot] org.

Details:
El Nutri Taco
Where: 8438 S.E. Woodstock Blvd.
Hours: 11 a.m.-9 p.m. Monday through Saturday; noon to 9 p.m. Sunday
Information: 503-788-3492

Man, this guy is my hero.

Why? Not only because he has a great podcast and has interviewed everyone from Ira Glass to Ted Leo. Not only because his podcast was picked up by WNYC and then PRI. Not only because he’s America’s Radio Sweetheart. Not only because his wedding was covered by The Grey Lady herself. But mostly, because his wedding was catered by, yes, a taco truck.

The Times neglected to mention which truck provided the food. Because, as we all know, not all trucks are created equal. A closer look at the above photo reveals it to be Tacos Santana, which appears to be part of the El Tonayense empire. Good pick, Jesse!

This just in from Phil Greenwald, the attorney representing the taco trucks in unincorporated LA County hit by the ordinance from earlier this year:

Hi:

This morning in Department 1 of the Los Angeles Superior Court in the East Los Angeles Court House, the Hon. Dennis A. Aichroth ruled on a motion that I filed.

The motion (called a “demurrer”) asked the Court to declare Los Angeles County Code Section 7.62.070 “unconstitutional” and thereby render it unenforceable.

This is the so called “time limit ordinance” which prohibited street vendors (e.g., Taco Truck Operators) from: (1)remaining at one place more than one hour (in a commercial zone) or (2) for more than one half hour (in a residential zone) and (3) prohibiting them from returning to the previous location at which they had been selling, or (4) within one half mile of the previous location in any THREE HOUR PERIOD.

The Judge accepted my arguments notwithstanding the opposition filed by the District Attorney’s Office. The Judge ruled the ordinance “unconstitutional.”

Yea! We won!

Fraternally and sincerely,

Phil Greenwald

Huzzah!

Apparently a new Santa Rosa taco truck has burned to the ground for an unknown reason.

The Santa Rosa Press-Democrat:

The 2005 truck was parked behind Perry’s Deli on Sebastopol Road when smoke was reported billowing out of it just after 6 a.m., Santa Rosa Fire Division Chief Mike Jones said.

The fire was extinguished by 6:46 a.m.

Officials estimated the loss to be $100,000. The cause is under investigation.

First off, my apologies for the lack of posting these last couple weeks. Been busy with other work, mainly my book project, and the usual freelancing.

Also, my interviews with David LeBeouf and Philip Greenwald haven’t happened yet — we kept playing phone and email tag, but I’m going to stay on them and try to get an interview up on the site.

Anyway, onto the news, this time, from Patterson, Calif.

The Modesto Bee:

Council members unanimously supported a new mobile food vendor ordinance, which limits sales to paved surfaces, requires vendors to provide on-site parking, and limits trucks’ hours to 8 a.m. to midnight Sunday through Thursday and until 1 a.m. Friday and Saturday.

Mayor Becky Campos disliked a portion of the ordinance that requires new food vendors to buy a $1,140 conditional-use permit.

“It seems a little bit elevated,” she said.

City staff said it would reconsider that fee, and bring it back to the council.

Juan Daniel Virgen, who represented the group by summarizing their concerns to the council, called the decision a success.

Vendors who already have business licenses and have paid their fees won’t be affected by the new ordinance unless they move their business elsewhere in the city.

It comes more than a year after talk of regulation began.

Neighbors’ complaints that the trucks draw loud crowds late into the night to a dusty strip of land along railroad tracks along First Street ignited the issue.

Councilman Sam Cuellar, who brought the issue to the council, said he didn’t intend to hurt anyone’s business.

Vendors said they are just trying to make an honest living.

“Like everyone, I dream of living a little better, and of being somebody in life so my children could be proud of their parents and what they’ve accomplished,” Joaquin Pelayo said.

I’m not sure which is more strange, that hot cooking oil was fired up while a taco truck is in motion, or that a taco truck was being driven by a Vietnamese(-American?) woman.

Contra Costa Times:

CONCORD — A woman was badly burned by hot cooking oil after the taco truck she was riding in collided with another car this afternoon on Interstate 680.

The collision occurred at 1:56 p.m. on southbound I-680, north of Concord Avenue, California Highway Patrol Officer Tom Maguire said.

The Chevrolet taco truck, driven by 49-year-old Thu Phan of San Jose, was travelling south in the left-hand lane at 55 mph. In the lane to the right of the truck, a 1995 Mitsubishi sedan driven by 19-year-old Iris Lopez, of Antioch, was also driving south.

Maguire said Lopez later told officers she thought the taco truck was merging into her lane, so she swerved to the right. The taco truck never attempted to change lanes, Maguire said. Lopez then over-corrected and swerved back to the left, striking the taco truck. The front of the truck slammed against the driver’s side front door of the sedan.

The City of Turlock (a neighboring town of Modesto, Calif.) is butting heads with a taco truck owner as to what type of construction is and isn’t allowed.

The Modesto Bee:

Mariscos Camino Real opened two months ago with a food wagon and seafood-only menu in an empty lot next to a small car dealership. Owner Ignacio Ochoa went to the Planning Department shortly after with ideas for improvements, including a concrete pad and heavy canopy tent under which patrons can eat.

No concrete and no construction, he was told.

Ochoa and his partner, Rudy Yanez, put down brick pavers, planters filled with small palms and ficus trees, a fountain and a 24 foot-by-40 foot collapsible outdoor-event tent. Ten stone tables with custom tile tops were installed. Two speakers were hung high in the tent rafters. The men spent $80,000 and ended up with a polished outdoor eating space on a patch of leased land.

“Our goal was to change perception,” Yanez said last week. “All taco trucks are not the same. It’s not filthy. There’s space to eat.”

City officials weren’t exactly charmed.

“We went out there for another call and saw it,” said Debbie Whitmore, the city’s planning director. “The reaction was ‘Oh, my God!’ It grew beyond how it was described to us.”

Tension between taco trucks and government isn’t new. Los Angeles County supervisors in April made parking a mobile food operation in the same place for more than an hour a misdemeanor punishable by a $1,000 fine or six months in jail. Riverbank uses a similar ordinance to effectively ban them. Vendors can’t spend more than 15 minutes in the same spot. The Patterson City Council is in the process of revising its taco truck policy. Modesto only allows mobile food vendors on industrial-zoned land, hence the concentration by the railroad tracks on Eighth Street. Ceres doesn’t allow them.

Ok, I’m a little late to this one, but apparently a taco truck right here in my own backyard — Los Compadres (Hayes St. and Polk St. near San Francisco’s City Hall Plaza — was going to be removed as per the request of the lot’s owner, Central Parking Systems. A concerned and intrepid taco aficionado, Matthew Goudeau, started a Facebook group and a small campaign to persuade CPS to let the truck continue to serve its delicious wares, and I’m happy to announce that it worked!

The San Francisco Sentinel and Goudeau’s Facebook group report that the truck has been saved! I just might have to go over there next week to get a celebratory taco — or three.

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.

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. Continue reading »