Thread: Food Trucks: Bother or Boon?

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me ... 5165.story

Food Trucks: Bother or Boon?
Vendors who cruise the streets are a godsend, say shoppers. Others call them an unsightly nuisance. Santa Ana has plans for changes.
By Jennifer Delson
Times Staff Writer

September 25, 2005

The trucks rumble down Townsend Street each day like clockwork, carrying crates of tomatoes, bananas and cabbage for those who live in the gray stucco apartment buildings that crowd the dead-end Santa Ana street.

The food trucks are a welcome sight to the residents, many of them immigrants drawn by the low rents and the relative quiet of the street. There are few cars here, and, often, a trip to the supermarket means climbing on a bus. Many make the trip only twice a month, usually after payday.

Stocked with fresh produce, tortillas, candy, laundry detergent and other household goods, the trucks are rolling convenience stores. And the drivers, some of whom have served the same neighborhoods for years, are often on a first-name basis with residents

But the 200 or so produce trucks on the streets of Santa Ana are a nuisance to other residents, who say the trucks are unsightly and drag down property values. Now, Santa Ana wants to regulate the trucks, which are staples in working-class, immigrant neighborhoods throughout Southern California.

"My taxes are paying for the street … and the cleaning … it's unfair," said Lance Ferm, a resident. "They make the city a ghetto."

After two years of debate, Santa Ana has come up with a unique solution: permanent concrete parkways between city streets and sidewalks to accommodate truck customers.

The city proposes to cover its costs by charging vendors up to $2,000 for the right to their own permanent stretch of concrete. About 150 spots would be assigned throughout Santa Ana. The fee could be paid over three to six years, said Steve Harding, executive director of the city's Planning and Building Agency.

The parkways would serve as walkways for customers to approach the trucks from sidewalks and eliminate complaints from property owners that pedestrians destroy grass medians.

Truck owners not willing to pay the fee would be required to move to another block every 90 minutes.

Not Far Enough

Although the idea is novel, some residents don't think the proposal goes far enough.

"There's a stigma, unattractiveness and ugliness that comes with those vending trucks," said Debbie McEwen, a resident of the middle-class, historic French Park neighborhood. She said as many as four vending trucks come through her neighborhood to serve nearby apartment dwellers.

"We have to give up so much so a couple of thousand people can have the convenience of picking up a roll of toilet paper or a banana," she said. "It's as wrong as it can possibly be. We would prefer there be no vending trucks ever."

Truck vendors say the proposed one-time fee would be about 10 times what any other city charges vendors in a year for licenses, even though the city has offered to take the payments in installments. The proposed ordinance has raised the ire of the vendors, mostly Santa Ana residents who take home $250 to $400 each week. They say their customers have no problems with them and that complaints come from residents in other neighborhoods. The vendors are parked throughout the city, but generally congregate in immigrant neighborhoods.

The proposed fee "is too much money for our vendors to pay," said Maria Gomez, president of the Assn. of Food Vendors of Santa Ana, which has 150 members. "Residents really want us. They are low-income people who need us. They have no complaints."

There's been so much tension over the ordinance that the City Council has twice delayed voting on it. The ordinance is expected to be retooled in coming weeks, perhaps to reduce the fee.

"The vendors are something that really affects everyone in this city," said Councilman Jose Solorio, who added he would approve the ordinance if the fees were lowered and the required distance between trucks increased from 100 feet to at least 250 feet. "Even if they are not in your neighborhood, you see them every day somewhere in the city."

Other cities have struggled with regulating mobile vendors, walking a fine line between the rights of businesses and the rights of residents who want peace and quiet. For more than two years, Los Angeles officials have considered how to regulate the trucks. Concerned about a legal challenge, the City Council never voted on a 2003 proposal to ban the trucks from residential neighborhoods and limit parking in other areas to 30 minutes.

Placing Limits

After being sued, city leaders in Fullerton backed off their 1997 law that required trucks to move 200 feet every 15 minutes. Now, the trucks are allowed to remain stationary for 90 minutes. Santa Ana has limited vending hours to 9 a.m. to 8 p.m., banned music and imposed a 500-foot distance from schools.

Vendors in Santa Ana have put the city on notice that they will go to court if the new regulations are imposed. In 1997, Santa Ana vendors successfully sued to repeal the city's previous ordinance, which required trucks to move every 30 minutes.

On Townsend Street, residents don't understand why city officials are wasting time talking about vendors when the city faces such problems as gangs, vandalism, and street repair. Many are Guatemalan immigrants who work at low-paying jobs. Their rents range from $750 to $1,100 a month, and they often get by on one salary so the mother can take care of the children.

David Soriano has parked his food truck on this street for 11 years and knows all of the children and parents. When they can't make ends meet, he lends them money to buy tortillas. He also sells tomatoes, potatoes, potato chips, candy and laundry detergent.

"These people are like family," said Soriano. "It's absurd to think that we are a bother to them."

Griselda Roman, 29, a mother of two, said she considers the three vendors on the streets friends. One even comes over for dinner.

"Why would these vendors bother us? On the contrary, they are helping us," said Roman, who bought a $1 bottle of Downey on a recent weekday. "We can only go to the supermarket every two weeks. We run out of something and they are here to sell it to us."

Convenience

The closest supermarket is nearly a mile away. Some local supermarkets do offer transportation home for customers, but the trip seems hardly worth it for odd items, residents say.

Besides, the vendors' prices are often lower, and parents feel comfortable sending their children to buy items. Remedios Arias, 32, sent her 11-year-old son to buy 10 eggs for $1 on a recent morning.

"I realized we had nothing to eat for lunch," said Arias, who planned to serve herself, three children and her husband fried eggs. "We're lucky to have these trucks here. How would we make do without them?"

It has not been that far back that other ethnic groups used to operate produce trucks. Where I live there are farmers markets though the farmers all seem to use enclosed trucks.

There is nothing I find in this article that specifically speaks about illegal immigrants. We can not equate being Latin American with being an illegal immigrant.

We have these types of trucks in the area where I live, and the illegals flock to them to buy different items. Many illegals don't have cars or drive, so they like the convenience of purchasing from these trucks. Just because the article doesn't specifically mention illegal immigrants is irrelevant in my opinion. It really doesn't take much of a leap to figure out who patronizes the trucks.