Taco libre!

Last night a group of taco fans (loyal, aggrieved, stubbornly hungry) gathered in East L.A., lining up for wobbly, sauce-drenched, carne asada-loaded paper plates at the Tacos El Galuzo truck parked on Whittier Boulevard.  Parked legally, that is, for the final hours before the new city ordinance went into effect at 12:01 a.m. today.  Now taco trucks must move every hour or face misdemeanor charges, $1,000 in fines and-or 6 months in jail.  These new regulations apply only in unincorporated parts of the city, but as the folks at saveourtacotrucks.org, which sponsored the gathering, point out on their website, that's 65% of the county. 

The taco crowd was good, especially considering that the Lakers were playing Game 5 only a few miles away.  And the gathering was upbeat, proving that a heady taco al pastor can generate more civic goodwill than a questionable city ordinance.  Saveourtacotrucks.org founders Chris Rutherford and Aaron Sonderleiter (looking tired, overwhelmed by the enormous publicity their site has generated, and a bit sauce-spattered) said they've received more than 9,000 signatures on their petition -- but no comment from District 1 County Supervisor Gloria Molina. 

"I'm curious to see what the next step will be," said Sonderleiter, a schoolteacher from Highland Park who started saveourtacotrucks.org with a $6 investment in the domain name ("that's almost two nights' dinner"). 

So are we.  And not just the next step by the city -- but the next steps, and routes, of the trucks themselves.  News from your favorite taco trucks? Comment below. 

Tacos El Galuzo, 5555  Whittier Blvd., Los Angeles (as of 10 p.m. yesterday).

-- Amy Scattergood

Correction: As many readers have pointed out, the new regulations apply to unincorporated parts of the county of Los Angeles (I incorrectly referred to the city of Los Angeles).

Photo by Amy Scattergood

Comments

[Aaron]

East LA is an unincorporated part of Los Angeles County - the City of Los Angeles has no jurisdiction over East LA - the county board of supervisors enacted the law in question. It's not just semantics - The City is more liberal than the County - don't look to see the City jumping to enact a similar law, at least not under Mayor Villaraigosa.

The law applies to unincorporated areas such as East LA and presumably Marina del Rey, but does not apply in anywhere that is incorporated (LA, Pasadena, etc.).

[JustTheFacts]

Huh? What CITY are you talking about? There are no unincorporated parts of any CITY by definition, yet you keep referring to the CITY that passed an ordinance; the CITY whose unincorporated parts take up 65% of the county; the one with the questionable CITY ordinance?

And for some reason is this huge, but unnamed CITY, we can petition a county supervisor to overrule its decisions.

Perhaps a little less editorializing; you could use your numerous college degress to focus on getting facts straight.

[dave]

the amount of trash left behind by the rally attendees is the exact reason for the ordinance.

A large majority of these trucks are patronized by people who litter - at least around here.

If the customers don't care, and the trucks create the trash, regulate them to eliminate it.

[khh1138]

Out of all the problems they could try to legislate out of L.A., they come up with...Taco Trucks??!!! This is idiotic. The whole point of a taco truck is knowing where it's going to be, so you can recommend it to your friends. In what way does having neighborhood taco trucks cause problems to the good people of L.A.? Viva Tacos!!

[Nate]

This might seem like a minor point, but when erroneous quotes from this post grace the LATimes.com front page, they need corrected.

The ordinance in question is not a CITY ordinance -- it is a COUNTY ordinance. This regulation on taco trucks only applies to unincorporated parts of Los Angeles County -- the biggest of which is East LA.

The phrase in the above-post -- "unincorporated parts of the City" -- is an oxymoron. If the area is unincorporated, it's not part of the City.

I agree with the Save our Trucks campaign, but I think it is vital that correct information be communicated to the public. While I can't fault an individual journalist for being confused on the issue, I do think it's irresponsible that the Times editors didn't catch the misinformation before plastering as a featured quote on the front page of the web site.