Boulevard Sentinel Editorializes Against Street Food
Ξ January 11th, 2009 | → | ∇ 90041, 90042, 90065, Food, Politics, Press |
As big backers of Los Angeles’ street food culture, we were disappointed to see our neighborhood paper editorialize against our beloved trucks. Editor Tom Topping’s first mention of the taco truck issue that has been raging in Los Angeles for the better part of a year, laments a recent trip to Cinnamon Vegan restaurant on Figueroa that reads in part:
Once seated, we had a delicious meal-all alone. The other customers were outside at the sidewalk food carts. Now, I’m all for free enterprise, but there has to be a level playing field if brick and mortar businesses are to survive. sidewalk food carts and trucks don’t pay the overhead that sit-down restaurants must pay. And, there’s the matter of health codes. when we see the letter grade of restaurants we know what we’re getting.
I say make the food carts/trucks pay the equivalent of rent and submit to health inspection-or they should go. [...] Well, if we don’t make everyone play by the same rules, you’ll have your taco trucksfood cartspaletas men, but you won’t have any restaurants in this area.
Now, Mr. Topping’s sympathy for the restaurant he was eating in is understandable, but for a journalist who works under the slogan, “to comfort the afflicted & afflict the comfortable”, it’s a shame that he relied on specious reasoning and alarmism to side against hard-working families.
The irony that Mr. Topping disparages the bacon-wrapped hot dog vendors that populate that stretch of Figueroa is too rich to ignore. We’ve always argued that most restaurants aren’t in direct competition with street food. In this instance, carne asada and hot dogs simply aren’t luring vegans away from soyrizo tacos and vegetarian tamales. When combined with the fact that Cinnamon serves fruit smoothies and offers luxuries like tables and indoor seating, Mr. Topping’s argument doesn’t hold its wheatgrass juice.
Second, the assertion that taco trucks and street vendors should be punished because they have lower overhead is ridiculous. Would any of us trade the Warehouse, formerly located where Panda Express sits, for iTunes? Should Netflix be taxed into submission so we can go back to paying $4 to rent a VHS at the Blockbuster where Figueroa Produce now exists? Street food exists in most major cities around the world, and I’m pretty sure that Beijing, New York, and London still have viable restaurant scenes.
Finally, it’s disappointing that Mr. Topping rolls all street food into one lawless flauta. This brand of misleading fearmongering is exactly the type of rhetoric that the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors used in its recent attempt to effectively criminalize the loncheros. The fact is that, if Mr. Topping had bothered to rely on research over rhetoric, the trucks are subject to taxes and health inspection. Does the public really need nanny-state legislation informing customers that if you’re buying tamales from the back of a minivan, the chef might not have a business license? Pasadena doesn’t use letter-grades for restaurants, and I haven’t seen a plague of food-poisonings from our northeastern neighbor.
Northeast Los Angeles’ dining options, both luxurious and low-brow, are a reason our neighborhood is unique among the suburban sprawl of Southern California. Burbank and the San Fernando Valley exist for those who want a Shakey’s and Los Burritos on every corner. We prefer the option of “brick and mortar” and “grill and wheel”.
on January 12th, 2009 at 1:45 pm
Cinnamon is vegetarian restaurant, though they do have vegan options. There is no way Cinnamon is losing customers to a food cart. If Cinnamon is empty, its substandard food and service are to blame. Now, if they were to introduce a vegan bacon-wrapped hotdog, I might stop in on occasion.
on January 13th, 2009 at 2:22 pm
I couldn’t agree with you more. People go to a restaurant because they want to sit down and be taken care of. They get street food because they’re hungry, don’t want to (or can’t) spend much money, and are possibly in a hurry. Each fills a different need. L.A. needs MORE street food, not less!
on January 13th, 2009 at 3:19 pm
A mexican guy told me he would never go to a taco truck because they are taking away from the mexican restaurants. I agreed with him but not totally. If they are taxed and inspected and allowed to park in a spot then why not. I doubt they are taxed and inspected and that is the real reason they keep me away.
on January 13th, 2009 at 5:34 pm
Kirby, the legal vendors are taxed, and inspected. You can see permits in their windows, and if that doesn’t convince you, drive down to Maywood comissaries where many of the East LA trucks park when not in operation, prepare their food, and clean their kitchens daily. I have no doubt there are vendors who violate the laws, but that’s not a trait exclusive to taco trucks. Let’s not throw out the baby with the bathwater.
on January 19th, 2009 at 9:08 pm
This is a perfect example of how the government takes care of private corporations and makes sure they make enough money. The government shouldn’t care how much money they have to pay!
on January 31st, 2009 at 12:13 pm
WOW…
I moved from Cali to a small taco truck free town in Texas and I feel deprived. I miss carne asada, I cant find a good taco here to save my life. The first thing we do when we get back home for a visit is hit up a taco truck.
on February 14th, 2009 at 5:56 pm
My friends and I know that Tom Topping lies so often that it is impossible to be surprised by anylie he says or writes. He was sued last year by local businessman Jim Perry for libel and slander. He falsely wrote in his trashy tabloid, The Boulevard Sentinel, that the minutes takers from Apple One were falsifying the minutes for the Eagle Rock Neighborhood Council to assist Mr. Perry in his lawsuit against Topping. And now his latest lying rant is that the taco trucks are destroying restaurants in the Los Angeles area. He wrote that he had to move through “a gauntlet” of taco trucks to get to the restaurant Cinnamon, but that is a deliberate lie. I know the area he writes about, the stretch of Figueroa between Avenues 55 and 56 and, believe me, there are no taco trucks in that area. So where is the gauntlet? In Mr. Topping’s lying mind, that’s where.
Readers should not be so gullible that they actually believe Mr. Topping’s alleged motto “To comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable.” If you believe that major corporations such as Walgreen’s and the entire business community are “the afflicted,” then you get the point. Topping can point to his support for Hillary Clinton as proof of his liberal credentials, but we can put this to a rest. He may be confused, but he was not confused when he wrote the lies he routinely publishes in the BS.
More later on this nelly, lying “reporter.” I have so much ammunition against this stinker it would fill pages of YorkBlvd.com.
I shall return.
Ken Camp, Los Angeles