It Has Begun

Ξ May 24th, 2008 | → 1 Comments | ∇ Uncategorized |

Thanks to some observant posters and our friends over at californiatacotrucks.com, we’ve been made aware of the first victim of GloMo’s new persecution of our beloved trucks.  Alejandro Valdovino’s was cited for not moving his truck, La Flor de Sahuayo, from in front of his own restaurant.  Mr. Valdovino has been charged with a misdemeanor and is facing a maximum $1,000 fine and/or 6 months in jail.  The defenders of the new law have largely whined about trucks parking in front of their restaurants and poaching their business.  Unless Mr. Valdovino complained about himself to the sheriff, I’m not sure exactly what the logic is behind this action.  I am out of town for the weekend and won’t be able to look at the neighborhood until Sunday at the earliest, but in looking at Google Street View, the only businesses that seem to be even remotely in competition with La Flor de Sahuayo are a bakery, gas station store, and a run-down delicatessen.  We’ll check it out soon and publish the contact information for any restaurants in the direct vicinity.  Feel free to phone them and let them know that they can’t anonymously hide behind Mrs. Molina and have the sheriff push their competition out of business.

What else can we do?  Well, the District 2 Board of Supervisor’s seat is up for grabs as Yvonne Burke (who voted in favor of this law) is retiring.  We’ve contacted all the candidates involved and so far Dr. Delaney Smith and Antonio Alvarez have responded indicating various degrees of support for the trucks.  (Mr. Alvarez’s was by far the most energetic).  We’ll keep you updated, but we are tentatively promoting these two candidates as running a pro-taco campaign.

On the other end of the spectrum appears to be Bernard Parks.  Parks is currently a member of the city council and previously served as chief of the LAPD.  Seeing as his campaign statement boasts of endorsements Burke and Molina, Parks appears to be aligning himself with the status-quo and what we jokingly refer to around here as “big-taco”.

We should also note that we had been getting anecdotal evidence of increasing harassment in the city of Los Angeles.  On Thursday, after the Zocalo event that will be aired on KPCC Sunday night, we saw it with our own eyes.  The organizers arranged for a taco truck to serve free food to the audience afterwards.  A local business complained and the LAPD showed up and gave the truck 15 minutes to move.   The only restaurant I saw in the area was Mariscos Ensenada on Spring St., but he was closing.  Pay attention as a day without a taco truck is approaching sooner than later.

La Flor de Sahuayo
4601 E. Olympic Blvd