LA City Election: The taco factor

There is a Los Angeles City election on March 6th. If you are a taco lover and a practitioner of the taco lifestyle it is your duty to vote. (It is your civic duty to vote anyway)

Several seats are up for the LA City Council. As reported on these pages the current LA City Council is anti-taco. Back in may of 2006 the city council passed a draconian anti-taco truck ordinance, one that put undue hardship on legally licensed LA street vendors. The ordinance mandates that catering trucks must move location every hour or face a fine. To add insult to injury Councilwoman Janice Hahn raised fines from $95 to $310 for third time offenders.




So I decided to find out which challengers if any were pro-taco and anti taco and if any of the incumbents still held their anti taco views. Not surprisingly the incumbent council members did not respond to any of my inquiries.


LA city council, you're still on notice


I was hoping someone from the Monica Rodriguez camp would respond. She's in a tough fight for district 7 seat with that degenerate swine Richard Alarcon and maybe the taco vote could push her over the top. You see back in November Alarcon campaigned and won a state assembly seat but a funny thing happened on the way to the state capitol. When Alarcon realized due to a rule change he was still eligible to hold a LA city council seat and that the LA city council paid 50k more a year than the state assembly Alarcon suddenly realized he wanted to spend more time with his family in Los Angeles.

Several challengers responded to my inquires though. Merv Evans a write in candidate for City Council district 8 said "A food truck offers service to people in a hurry" " I support the rights of all street vendors to sell their products" Robert D. Serrano a write in candidate for City Council District 10 is against the ordinance as well."I would have voted no. I will ask to repeal this vote and have the community behind me to get other members of the council to change this vote and change the ordinance."

But write in candidates only win when the incumbent is a pederast. I wanted to see if someone on the actual ballot had the cojenes to be pro-taco in todays anti-taco climate.

The next morning I got a reply from the Juan "Johnny Jay" Jimenez campaign. Mr Jimenez is on the ballot for the 14th district seat. He's running against Jose Huizar who voted for the ordinance.

The email read.

"Mr. Jimenez called a meeting with us volunteers to discuss this issue and I was assigned to reply to your questions" "City Council members are quick to make decisions without first investigating the issues in depth" "Mr Jimenez would come up with an alternative solution that doesn't create hardship for legally licensed street vendors."

Things were starting to happen. I called the Huizar campaign. "Hey this is Bandini, I'm a taco reporter from the interwebs"

Silence.

"The Jimenez campaign has gone on the record, they support the taco lifestyle"

I waited for the Huizar campaign to call me back. Maybe some back room deal could be worked out. Huizar could promise to rescind his anti-taco vote and I would call off the taco mob.

Another email came through. This time from Eric Rothaney, a candidate running for City Council district 6.

"I believe I would have voted against such ordinance if it would make it
impossible or unreasonable to conduct a vendor type business under legal
spectrum of the law."

I yelled to a co-worker "Rothaney is in"

"Who? What?"

"Never mind, lets go get some tacos"

You could sense the change in the political air. There's a new wave of politicos that see the taco not as a nuisance but as the binding force that brings the city together.

"Where to?" Pete said

"The taco mecca"

I don't remember who coined the term taco mecca to describe the taco scene at East Olympic where the 710 and the 5 meet. It might have been me but I can't be sure. What makes this area of LA a taco mecca is not only the amount of taco establishments but the competition. The best of the best come here. A weak taco will not survive in this competitive atmosphere. During the day the taco stands and King Taco pull in the crowds but when the sun goes down the taquerias close and the taco trucks dominate the scene. They line the blvd like a fleet of ships, one after another. Some fire up the roasting al pastor spit, some specialize in cemitas poblanas, others make mariscos and shrimp cocktails. It is the home of the famed Tacos El Korita and countless other taco wagons.



We took the Olympic exit off the 710 and pulled over at the first taco truck we saw. Tacos Sahuayo, a truck that parks in front of a taqueria with the same name.




al pastor


carne asada

Asada and al pastor all around. Tacos came wrapped in thin paper and were the size of small burritos each packed with meat, onions, and salsa.These were beauties.

The al pastor, a tender sweet glaze entwined with caramalized onions and a jalapeno tomato salsa and the asada juicy and tender and charred at the edges. I chased both with the jalapeno and bottle of mexican coke.

When I got back to the office Lisa Martello Palmer a candidate running for City Council District 6 wanted to meet me for coffee to discuss the taco issue. Things were starting to roll. The issue had legs and was spreading through the political grapevine. Politicians would soon be asked if they were pro or anti taco. They would have to go on record and explain their anti-taco vote. I could see Huizar backpedaling already. I could see them all now looking for a taco photo op.

But it would be too late. Their vote is already on record.

And maybe it is too late for the taco to influence this election but the tide is turning my friends. The next election the taco will speak loudly and one of these days the taco will take down a politician and he or she will only have to look back to that fateful day in May 2006 when they voted to ban the taco lifestyle.

Tacos Sahuayo one block east of 710/5 on East Olympic. Tacos $1.30

2007 Great Taco Hunt endorsements
District 14- Juan "Johnny Jay" Jimenez
District 6 - Eric Dwight Rothaney
District 8 - Merv Evans (write in candidate)
District 10 - Robert D Serreno (write in candidate)
District 2- David Glenn Cain (write in candidate)

Related Links:
Ordinance 177620
LA City Council mobile truck ordinance vote