Table of Contents

I. Prologue
4
II. In the Beginning There Was Food
6
III.
Social Isolation
8
IV.Economic Isolation
11
V. Race and the Law
13
VI.
Race and Policy
15
VII.
The Face of Street Food Today
17
VIII. Why Its Not Just Economics
21
IX.
Conclusion
22
Appendix A: Street Food Links
23
Appendix B: How Start a Lunch Truck
23
Appendix C: Story about Customers Fighting
for Their Lonchera
24
Appendix D: Health Department Violations 25
Appendix E: Health Requirements for Food
Trucks
25
Appendix F: Costs to Purchase a Lonchero 26
Appendix G: Department of Health Inspection
Form
Regulating The Competition out27
of Business:

The Real American Dream

Nicholas Jay Aulston
Food Justice March 11, 2010

I.

Prologue

Its very, very difficult to make a living by selling on the streets, you do that when you
dont have any other options, --Diego Cardoso1
Leaning over a steamy mist of boiling water makes you feel as though you are constantly
sweating. Well, in actuality you are constantly sweating when working over a hot grill or
stovetop for 14 hours. Anyone who has been a line cook, prep cook, chef, or dishwasher
in a restaurant kitchen understands how stressful the pressure of the kitchen is on a daily
basis. Working in a restaurant kitchen is not an easy or glamorous job. You arrive early
to prep and clean, work an 8-10 hour shift, then you leave late after youve prepped and
cleaned again. If you are the owner/manager/cook you have even more responsibilities.
Balancing financial books, hiring/firing, making pay roll, buying/managing inventory,
press/ads, etc. which conservatively adds 2-5 hours to your tense working day.
This 16-19 hour nerve-racking workday is why I chose to examine street food vendors.
When these entrepreneurs are put out of business, I take it personally because I am at the
University of California Los Angeles due to my parents efforts to break through
systematic racism, the same way the vendors are trying to get through.
My mother had the chance to own her own restaurant only because of a connection with a
bank Vice President at Amalgamated Bank of Chicago that connection that was forged
by my father. When my parents were looking for a loan to start their business, lending
institutions were unwilling to give business loans on the south side of Chicago. This area
is a predominately African-American section of Chicago, and lending institutions cited
crime, income, lack of home ownership and loan applicants general lack of understanding
of how to run a business as reasons for denial of their loan applications. My parents went
to every bank in the city because they believed in the restaurant they were trying to build
with the loan and the neighborhood they were going to serve. My parents, like the vast
majority of African American entrepreneurs looking to get a loan for a business on the
1 Estrada, G., Los Angeles Street Vendors Under Scrutiny, Eastern Group Publications
New America Media, May 9, 2005
2

south side in the 1970s, where no banks physically existed, were rejected for loans. It
wasnt until my father made a connection with one of the few (my mother says he was the
only one in the city) African-American VPs and secured a loan through him. My parents
struggle to secure a loan points to the systematic disinvestment and economic segregation
that minority business owners faced. This is the same issue facing the street food vendors
in America today, over 30 years after my parents humiliating journey through
discrimination.
Neighborhoods will never be able to stand on their own without investment. If a bank or
investor cannot envision all the angles of risk in an investment they are not going to sink
money into something when they are not sure of the margins. Ideally if outside investors
cannot come up with the money would come from within the community. However,
many inner city minority neighborhoods are not abundant in investable income. If banks
and industry do not invest in these neighborhoods then those desirous of creating your
own business must save for years or turn to the mafia, drug dealer, number runners, or
family and friends to try and acquire the necessary funds.
We are now in the year 2010 and are witnessing similar patterns of lending discrimination
when it comes to what hurdles street vendors face. In the most fundamental sense, when
I look into the eyes of a street food vendor I see the same hunger my parent once had.
These vendors truly represent the American Dream!

II. IntheBeginningThereWasFood
In Guns, Germs, & Steel, Jared Diamond artfully describes how humans have been
trading food and eating habits for centuries. Tastes, crops, and cultures collided and
morphed into what we experience as the global food scene. Here in the United States we
are in a unique position when it comes to food availability and variety. Decades of
immigration into the U.S. from every corner of the world have exponentially shifted and
expanded the scope of available food in the U.S.
Over the past few decades waves of immigrants to the United States from Europe (Italy,
Poland, Germany, Russia, France, Irish), Asia (India, China, Japan, Philippines, Korea),
Latin America (Cuba, Mexico, Argentina, El Salvador), and Africa (Ethiopia, Ghana,
Morocco, Senegal) brought their own food cultures and traditions with them. One
tradition that most travelers have experienced is street food. All the countries listed
above have some form of street fair, whether it comes from a vending machine, a street
food mall, an open-air market or a transit stops, they have a culturally appropriate way of
selling food on the streets. In that vein those immigrants to the U.S. brought with them
this tradition or perhaps it was already here and they brought new cuisine to the market.
Those that chose this route of self-employment, street vendor, had to stand all day and the
profit for a street cart was never extremely high. However, many established immigrants
turned to this type of work as a service to the recent immigrants from the same country; a
slice of home in an unfamiliar place.
This tradition of street food has never disappeared. Many street food vendors end up
saving enough money and establish a brick & mortar restaurant.2 Either way they serve
as an economic anchor for the community. They are normally a social center too, since
they will sell more food (and be most profitable) in locations with high foot traffic.
However, in recent years this path towards the American Dream has been made more
2 A stationary, traditional, sit-down restaurant or small shop. A non-mobile restaurant.
4

difficult because new laws and regulations have teamed up with enhanced enforcement of
standing rules to make it harder to have a successful street food business. This perhaps
would not be an issue if there were numerous avenues for low-income minority citizens
to achieve the American Dream.
It is my intention to demonstrate how; in general, the creation of social and economic
isolation along with changes in laws and policies have created an atmosphere where it is
increasingly more complicated for low-income minority citizens to reach the American
Dream; as my parents did.

III. SocialIsolation
by the 1980's, the inner city was viewed as he site of severe concentrated poverty,
social dislocation, and social isolation.3
It is extremely demanding to achieve the American Dream while being socially isolated
from crucial resources. It is a rare person who is able to become successful as its been
drawn-up without the support of society as a whole. Historical segregation has separated
the U.S. into many categories. One of the most significant is race. Racial segregation
has been the source of many problems facing the U.S., one of the most important being
social disempowerment through isolation. This isolation manifests in various ways
including systematic denial of access to capital and financial resources.
Many contend that it has been federal government-supported programs that are at the root
of this social isolation. The Home Owners Loan Corporation (HOLC), which assisted
citizens in refinancing loans, discriminated against African-American communities.
Starting in the 1930s, HOLC perpetuated these discriminatory practices by establishing
an evaluation tool that consistently showed high risk in communities with a
concentration of African-Americans. Other American banks adopted these evaluation
tools and continued the practice of redlining communities, not granting loans to these
communities. The Federal Housing Administration (FHA) and the Veterans
Administration and the loan programs they managed were a major reason for the rapid
suburbanization of predominantly white homeowners after 1945. These federal agencies
also used biased practices. The FHA recommended the use of restrictive covenants and
segregation through the belief that neighborhood stability came though neighborhoods
retaining a homogenous social and racial make-up. These types of programs enabled and
encouraged white citizens to move away from ethnically-mixed neighborhoods. As a
result, a new white privileged class emerged in America. In effect, these policies and
3 Calmore, John, Racialized Space and the Culture of Segregation: Hewing a Stone of
Hope from a Mountain of Despair, The University of Pennsylvania Law Review, Vol.
143, No. 5, p. 1243, May, 1995
6

agencies created alcoves of racially segregated neighborhoods. These types of

neighborhoods were not created equal: one had socially-mobile, white home owners,
while the other type had renters forced to deal with effects of disinvestment caused by
government programs and those that could afford to leave. This affected cities
nationwide during the 20th centuries and as a result, people of color primarily lived in
central cities. Federally supported disinvestment in the central cities culminated in the
housing acts of 1949 and 1954, which established federal funds to acquire slum
properties and redevelop them.
Many have argued in planning and political science theories as well as in popular
discourse, that desegregation will resolve many of the problems that face financially
disempowered minority communities. This line of argument is analogous to wait til the
white man comes and helps you story that weve seen so often in popular culture.4 The
argument is that when the white people come back to these communities they will
become vibrant, viable, and beautiful neighborhoods.
It is with this backdrop of social isolation that concentrations of minorities (in inner cities
and rural areas) created their own social norms. More recent immigrants also created
their social norms outside of the new white privileged class. However, it is these norms
of this new class that are the accepted traits of society at large. It is difficult for ghetto
dwellers to build self-esteem by satisfying the values and ideals of the larger society or to
acquire prestige through socially accepted paths. Precisely because ghetto residents deem
themselves failures by the broader standards of society, they evolve a parallel status
system defined in opposition to the prevailing majority culture.5
If there is nothing in larger society that reflects the values that the community holds, then
people from that smaller community are forced to retreat within into their community as
to not loose their identity and to not be forced to compromisebecoming increasingly
4 Major motion pictures such as Avatar, Dances With Wolves, The Last Samurai,
Pocahontas, Dangerous Minds, etc. perpetuate and reinforce this argument.
5 Alkon, Alison and Agyeman, Julian, The Food Justice Reader: Cultivating a Just
Sustainability Introduction: The Food Movement as Polyculture
7

more isolated.

Its important to recognize that racial segregation persists in the United States because
whites benefit from it.As social conditions in the nation's ghettos deteriorate, policies
to promote desegregation become less popular politically, thereby making a resolution of
the nation's crime problem that much more remote.6 Eliminating racial segregation--won't lead to equality as long as minority citizens continue to live under two different set
of rules or context.

IV. EconomicIsolation
removing poor [minorities] from job network and limiting their exposure to people
with stable histories of work and family formation, isolates them from the mainstream of
American society.7
Physical and social isolation are not the only issues that street food vendors face on their
path to obtaining the American Dream. The socially accepted mentality is that people in
these socially isolated neighborhoods served by and for street food vendors have nothing
to offer society at large. There is a perception, sometimes expressed explicitly, but often
implicitly that people in these neighborhoods are all criminals and leeches living off
government checks. This is in direct contrast, as everyone from these neighborhoods
knows, that they are entrepreneurs, business owners, teachers, government employees,
and perhaps most important, people with money who want to or are limited to purchasing
local products. However, the way the investment game is played right now the latter
group of citizens with good credit and full-time employment are overshadowed by their
proximity to high-risk residents with bad credit, high crime rates, delinquent bill payers,
high unemployment, and high default rates.
A teacher, police officer, or lawyer living in this neighborhood would have a hard time
getting a loan. This same person living who in a more affluent neighborhood would get
the loan, is effectively isolated from such opportunities because of the behavior of their
neighbors. Lending institutions even monitor shifts in the racial make-up of the
6 Alkon, Alison and Agyeman, Julian, The Food Justice Reader: Cultivating a Just
Sustainability Introduction: The Food Movement as Polyculture
7 Wilson, The Truly Disadvantaged, Chicago: Aldine Atherton, p.20-62, 1970
9

neighborhood and give this assessment: turnover from white to black, since most of the
time this meant a drop in property values, not because blacks lived there, but because
crime increased, schooled declined, and the public sphere was neglected.He [Glazer]
concludes that black segregation will end when the black behavior that induces the
[white] motives of resistance or avoidance is reduced8 This argument fall directly back
into the problems that we found in section III (Social Isolation). It seems as though the
social and economic issues that street food vendors face are circular. Could there be any
relief from this cycle in the laws that guide us all?

8 Calmore, John, Racialized Space and the Culture of Segregation: Hewing a Stone of
Hope from a Mountain of Despair, The University of Pennsylvania Law Review, Vol. 143
No. 5, May, 1995
10

V. RaceandtheLaw
The sin of racialism is that presumes that racial interests or racial identity exist
somewhere outside of or prior to law and is merely reflected in subsequent legal
decisions adverse to nonwhites.9
Laws have never been made in a vacuum. As much as the laws of this land are meant to
be equal to all citizens, their enforcement has been proven to have adverse affects on
certain parts of society more than others. When attempting to create laws that are
colorblind the authors may not have been able to envision unintended consequences.
The problem with colorblindness is that some of the most pressing issues of justice and
equality in this country are the result of policies that are race-neutral on their face but
discriminatory in practice.10
A. Serwer, a critic, of colorblindness, calls in to question the people who frame and create
the regulations. Who is at the desk when the laws are actually being written and then put
into effect? Do you believe that street food vendors attend those meetings? Do you
believe that their lobby is able to argue on their behalf to make sure that no laws are
passed that will harm the street food industry? The real question is who develops the
laws and then who is affected?
In the case of street food, the standard is that white males have been the dominant
presence in city halls and the courtrooms throughout America. This presence provides
access and ability to set laws that perpetuate and reinforce their privilege. It is this line of
reasoning that Amie Breeze Harper used to come to the conclusion that white people have
enslave[d] those whose labor is necessary for this theft [of natural resources from the
land]...they force[d] the remaining humans to live under the laws and moral code of the
9 Crenshaw, Kimberl, Neil Gotanda, Gary Peller, and Kendall Thomas. eds. Critical
Race Theory: The Key Writings that Formed the Movement, New York: New Press,
p.xxiv, 1995
10 Serwer, A., Color-blindness, Racism, and Disparate Impact, The Atlantic, July 3,
2009
11

occupiers.11 The general idea is that when one group (of non-laborers) is able to develop
laws without obstruction in their own interest, we end up with a system where the
laborers will always have to live under laws that may not reflect their morals and code of
conduct. Through legislation, everyone has to live by white laws. These laws are
significant as well because they naturalized whiteness as the normative identity for
citizenship. In the prerequisite cases, law establishes whiteness as American identity, and
racism facilitates this naturalization.12 Through this reasoning, it is easy to see how she
comes to her final conclusion: They inculcate future generations to forget their nonoccupied past and to aspire to join the ranks of their occupiers, to actually join the
degradation of [their bodies] and of the land base that was once theirs.13
It is important to understand how race has played a part in the creation of laws. Further,
how these racialized laws perpetuate the authority by those who were, and are in control.
Looking at the creation of laws and perpetuation of authority is important when
considering the laws that currently govern street food and how these laws are used to
subvert the best efforts of the larger minority small business owner population.

11 Harper, Amie Breeze. Book Chapter: Decolonizing the Diet, bell hooks and
Nutritional Liberation for "At Risk" Youths Forthcoming article abstract for the book,
bell hooks companion, SUNY press 2007 p.185
12 Carbado, Devon, Racial Naturalization, p.637, 2005
13 Harper, Amie Breeze. Book Chapter: Decolonizing the Diet, bell hooks and
Nutritional Liberation for "At Risk" Youths Forthcoming article abstract for the book,
bell hooks companion, SUNY press 2007 p.185
12

VI. RaceandPolicy
An institutional approach claims that racial and economic inequalities are built into the
zoning ordinances, mortgage policies and other institutions and policies that determine
how industries, human communities and goods and services come to exist in particular
places14
Policy, city ordinances, and codes have a similar function as federal and state mandated
laws. However, unlike laws, policies can change given public input and concern about
what is going on in their neighborhood. Unlike laws policy makers can hold public
negotiations about a given topic of concern. In the case of street food, vendors can be
dragged into a debate by neighborhood leaders complaining that mobile vendors have
repeatedly violated county health codes or ignored city zoning codes. They can make
claims about vendors dumping grease and wastewater down alley manholes or making
unauthorized connections into the city's sewer system. The reaction to a rising number of
complaints differs between cities, but some cities will request the zoning administrator
to research and explain what zoning laws said about mobile vendors.15 If the
administrator is thoroughly influenced by the plaintiffs they can conclude that street food
should not be allowed to do business but on a handful of days, which would effectively
put the street food vendors out of business.
Similar to the laws that govern this land, some citizens are worried about being
disenfranchised by policies made by the city, as in the situation above. If street food
vendors dont have representation or an advocate that work on these issues then they
might be victims of ordinances that require vendors to get a vending license from the
city. The city would regulate how, where and when they could operate on private
property. The new rules would also make it easier to shut down vendors who don't
comply. Vendors, who now can stay open as late as they want, would have to turn off
14 Alkon, Alison and Agyeman, Julian, The Food Justice Reader: Cultivating a Just
Sustainability Introduction: The Food Movement as Polyculture
15 Lebow, E, Taco Hell, New Times, Phoenix, AZ, September 28, 2000,
13

their lights and pull up their tables and chairs at 10 p.m. They could remain open, in the
pitch dark, as takeout businesses until 2 a.m.16
The city doesnt want to be seen as a body of government that devalues or squashes
entrepreneurship in the city. However, the city is bowing to one constituency, those
residents that loudly voice complaints about these businesses, and choosing to ignore the
consequences of the policies. Instead of engaging and assisting these small, majority
minority, business entrepreneurs to improve their businesses with training and education,
they choose to try to use zoning and law enforcement to force them out of business.

16 Ibid
14

Some cities are willing to put money into increased enforcement, hiring new inspectors,
allowing them to cite vendors without having to wait for citizen complaints, and to send
them into neighborhoods during the evening, when most of the vendor businesses
operate. While other cities, like St. Paul/Minneapolis, embrace street food by untangling
and rewriting an unruly jumble of city ordinances governing food carts. This acceptance
of street food vendors by certain cities could be because population hegemony or the fact
that they envision all street vendors as viable businesses. Either way it is important to
delve into the current situation the street food vendors face in United States.

VII.TheFaceofStreetFoodToday
Asked if regulations enacted in Houston were racist, David Mestemaker, an attorney
who represented taco truck owners there, replied: Absolutely. It's a classic case of
discrimination, because 95% of the people who own them are Hispanic.17
In order to understand the current climate of the street food debate the major players must
be considered. The stakeholders considered for this paper are the customers, the brick
and mortar restaurant owners, affected community members, and law enforcers, finally
the vendor themselves.
The clientele for these outlets are as diverse as the population of the cities that they serve.
In general they are people looking for a quick cheap meal or date, office workers on their
lunch break, immigrants, laborers, gardeners, late night eaters, construction workers,
government employees, nannies, and people on the move, janitors, parking attendants and
locals. This clientele list seemingly includes everyone. Repeat customers come for the
various reasons, but they become very loyal to these neighborhood food ambassadors.
(Appendix C) The ever-growing customer base sometimes helps street vendors politically
when enforcement of stricter city and county regulations made it more difficult or
impossible to conduct business legally. There is an understanding from these customers
that the vendors contribute to a high quality of life in their community. There were
17 Gottlieb, J., Taco trucks are feeling the crunch across the U.S. Los Angeles Time, LA,
CA, May 20, 2009
15

customers that were disgusted by any policy that was created or enforced that would tear
at the fabric of their community by negatively affecting street food vendors.
The brick and mortar restaurants are concerned about competition and the bottom line of
their business. Many of these owners fear the competition from the street food vendors.
As one small business owner puts it, All of our permits and fees have gone up. We pay
high rents, we pay high minimum wages. So anybody that parks a food van across the
street from you and is competing with you has almost an unfair advantage.18 On the
surface this seems like a valid argument about why the street vendors should be phased
out through legislation. However, there are various issues to consider, as Matthew
Cohen, a consultant to Eat Curbside and other vendors, states, its very tempting to see a
mobile vendor with a line [waiting to buy food] and say, Those are my customers. But
its probably not true. Its a different type of customer that will visit a mobile vendor
versus one who will visit a traditional restaurant.19 As stated above, it is clear that the
street food customer comes from all walks of life, but they are seeking an alternative to
sitting down and having a meal. Many restaurant owners will say that the more options
create a better economic environment. Concentration of options, as the theory goes, will
bring more people more often. But some brick and mortar owners argue for protection of
a product. Let's say you're a Pizza Luc. You're paying rent and paying taxes. Do you
want Rick's Pizza out on the sidewalk in front of your restaurant?20
Many residents align themselves with the brick and mortar restaurant owners, but voice
different concerns than economic competition. Various residents and neighborhood
associations throughout the city [Phoenix] blamed street food vendors for attracting
different sorts of lawbreakers, including prostitution, gangs, crime, drug dealing, littering
and other indicators of social decay. The residents were requesting the city to clamp
down on them.21
18 Steinhauer J, Taco Truck Battle, Mild Angelenos Turn Hot, New York Times: Los
Angeles Journal, May 3, 2008
19 Ibid
20 Nelson, R. Now seeking meals on wheels, Star Tribune Minneapolis-St. Paul, MN,
March 4, 2010
21 Lebow, E, Taco Hell. New Times, Phoenix, AZ, September 28, 2000
16

Ray Goodman [a white male], who supports [a] proposed new ordinance [that would
effectively put street vendors out of business] complains, What's happened is these
people have come in here and they've turned the neighborhood into a business. They're
running businesses on their front lawns, back lawns, out of the houses. It turns the place
into a mess. All we want the city to do is fix the mess.22 However, Susan Smith, a
geographer, would argue the process by which residential location is taken as an index
of the attitudes, values, behavioral inclinations and social norms of the kinds of people
who are assumed to live [there]. Smiths statement helps to explain how there might be
a misunderstanding between those who have living in a neighborhood for a long period of
time and those that are moving in. It is hard for both sides of the situation to understand
the others social norms. However, when laws are changed just to assuage the norms of
one race, white, at the cost of another, the large Hispanic population that has moved into
the neighborhood.
Some residents take exception to the notion that this attitude towards street food has
anything to do with discrimination. One resident said, The people with the vendors like
to say it's racism, but it's not. The issue is we want what's fair. That's basic. The issue is
we buy homes. We invest time and money in them. And we don't want to see them or
the neighborhood around them to continue to deteriorate the way this area has.23 This
quote highlights that residents often confront vendors as if the vendor is not concerned
about deterioration in the neighborhood. The assumption is the vendors arent
homeowners, they dont invest in their homes, and they want the neighborhood to
deteriorate. The question at hand was covered in Charles Murrays conclusion that,
stereotypes, which include the idea that [minorities] are more prone to violence and
crime than whites, are more likely to live off welfare, and are lazier and less moral than
white, are founded on empirically accurate understandings about contemporary
[minority] behavior compared to contemporary white behavior.24
22Ibid
23 Ibid
24 Calmore, John, Racialized Space and the Culture of Segregation: Hewing a Stone of
Hope from a Mountain of Despair, The University of Pennsylvania Law Review, Vol. 143
17

Given the fact that some county officials say they are being pressured by residents who
find the carts eyesores and some brick and mortar restaurant owners who feel undermined
by the price-chopping ways of their mobile competition, they have taken some actions.
Some have increased their enforcement efforts and hired more health inspectors in order
to make sure that the street food vendors are operating up to code. The street vendors
have noticed changes. Dan Darroch, the African-American owner of Hap's Real Pit BBQ
[ran on a used car lot] said, "All of a sudden the sky was raining bureaucrats on us. He
says he never had trouble until the west-siders began complaining about the taco
vendors.25 This type of rapid enforcement or additional taxes is exactly what the
business industry claims will bankrupt their business. Extra taxes, like healthcare for
workers or additional equipment necessary for regulations levied by government officials,
will break a business. So, why place this burden on those business owners who have the
least? Perhaps a slow ease into these new fees and regulations may allow these street
food vendors to adjust their business model to absorb the new costs and stay in business.
However, many vendors, like Mr. Darroch, face a different situation, I look up one day
and we've got maybe 15 city and county cars in the parking lot across the street and
they're all coming at me with clipboards and pens. That's a real bad sign. Problem is,
they can't find anything wrong. I think they found it a little bit embarrassing. So they left
to write tickets out on the west side.26 From his perspective, Mr Darroch believes that
the inspectors had come to pick his business apart. There doesnt seem to be much logic
behind a city attempting to destroy the businesses of the small owners. Alma Williams, a
Hispanic neighborhood activist, sums up the fact that the city is willing to enact reforms
on this tiny issue but not on other blight violations in neighborhoods by stating, [it]
just goes to show you that their fear of marching minorities is greater than their fear of
neighborhood leaders.27 It does seem like an interesting prioritization.

No. 5, May, 1995

25 Lebow, E, Taco Hell. New Times, Phoenix, AZ, September 28, 2000
26 Ibid
27 Ibid
18

VIII. WhyItsNotJustEconomics
Some critics would argue that race has little to nothing to do with todays debate
surrounding street food. They want the discussion about the policies and laws that
surround street food to be about income and economics. Excluding race as the most
important aspect of this debate would ignore two crucial factors: 1. The cultural history of
street food and 2. The social and economic isolation that minorities have fought through
in the U.S. If this is an issue of justice and creating an even playing field for all
contestants to reach their American Dream then we cannot simply be colorblind. The
guidance of Kimberl Crenshaw may shed a lot of wisdom concerning how a colorblind
may never reach equality: "justice in a multicultural society is not subject to assimilation
or colorblindness.28
Our approach attempted to consider both the economic and social issues at play around
street food. We believe that racial inequality urges us to think beyond debates
concerning the relative importance of race and class and to examine the multiple and
complex intersections of racial and economic inequality. Overall, institutional
approaches to racism demonstrate how race, in its intersection with class, often matters in
far-reaching and complex ways that go well beyond instances of individual
discrimination.29

28 Crenshaw, Kimberl, Neil Gotanda, Gary Peller, and Kendall Thomas.

eds. Critical Race Theory: The Key Writings that Formed the Movement.
New York: New Press, 1995.
29 Alkon, Alison and Agyeman, Julian, The Food Justice Reader:
Cultivating a Just Sustainability Introduction: The Food Movement as
Polyculture
19

IX. Conclusion
Government can regulate anyone out of business. They could create laws and taxes that
cripple any industry.
We began this journey through street food by discussing the problems that our parents
had in trying to achieve the American Dream. They were socially and economically
isolated from the necessary resources to develop a business in the neighborhood they
loved. That isolation was created by government policies that, perhaps unintentionally,
caused hardship for many minority entrepreneurs. The effects of these decisions made by
the government are still being felt in many communities.
We fundamentally find it abhorrent that any government would stifle small business
growth, especially in neighborhoods that lack economic anchors, such as banks,
supermarkets, universities, non fast food restaurants, business offices. They should be
using there ever shrinking funds to assist these entrepreneurs to improve their business
as an attempt to get more tax revenue.
My parents were only able to achieve their American Dream through bypassing a system
that did not want them to succeed. It is extremely troublesome to witness the same
racism today towards street vendors that simply want their chance at the American
Dream.

20

Appendix A: Street Food Links

SF Street Food (on twitterone of the best resources for street food news)
Seattle Taco Trucks (Seattle): http://www.lostacotrucks.com/seattle/
Denver Taco Trucks (Colorado): http://denvertaco.blogspot.com/
Taco Truck Tour (Ohio): http://www.columbusfoodie.com/2009/04/27/eventcolumbustaco-truck-tour-09/comment-page-1/
Taco Journalism (Texas): http://tacojournalism.blogspot.com/
Taco Town (Texas): http://tacotown.org/
Yum Tacos (Northern California): www.yumtacos.com
California Taco Trucks (California):
http://californiatacotrucks.com/blog/
Great Taco Hunt (Los Angeles): www.dailytaco.org
Loaded Web Taco Truck Usage (Los Angeles area):
http://us.loadedweb.com/blogs/tag/taco+truck.html
http://www.cartcult.com/

Appendix B: How Start a Lunch Truck

Jason Edwards wrote a book describing the steps to getting a lunch truck business off the
ground, including and teaching by using an actual business plan.30

30 Chee, Morgan, Hermosillo, Jesus, and Joe, Lawrence, A Sectoral Analysis of the
Loncheras Sub-Sector in Los Angeles County
21

Appendix C: Story about Customers Fighting for Their

Lonchera
In another example, Glenn recalled an incident over the summer relating to a lonchera
operator who parked his vehicle in front of a hospital everyday throughout the night. The
Los Angeles Police Department had received calls every day complaining about the
presence of the lonchera. However, hospital employees that worked late nights loved the
fact that the truck was parked in front of the hospital because there was no where else for
them to eat within walking distance late at night. Eventually, Glenn said, the Asociacin
and the police discovered that the source of all of the complaints was a single caller who
apparently just didnt like the food truck in the area.31

31 Taken from an interview with Erin Glenn in Chee, Morgan, Hermosillo, Jesus, and Joe, Lawrence, A
Sectoral Analysis of the Loncheras Sub-Sector in Los Angeles County. UCLA School of Public
Affairs/Dept. of Urban Planning, Fall 2009

22

Appendix D: Health Department Violations

The Health Department can shutdown a business for any of the following violations:
Food preparation that is beyond the scope of the operation
Lack of hot and/or cold running water
Improper food temperatures
Unpackaged foods offered for customer self-service, including pastries and food within
a self- service warming oven
Lack of proper dating on potentially hazardous foods offered for customer self-service
Unlabeled or misbranded prepackaged foods offered for customer self-service
Unsanitary conditions, including vermin infestations (flies, cockroaches, mice etc.).
Sale of home prepared foods or foods from an unapproved source
Discharge of wastewater onto the ground
Operating without a valid Public Health Permit
Inadequate mechanical refrigeration
Lack of oyster tags and warning signs
Repeated violations
Interference in the performance of the duty of the Enforcement Officer
Inability to warewash32

Appendix E: Health Requirements for Food Trucks

Health inspections of food trucks include the following:
1. Trucks must be parked within 200 feet of a restroom that has running hot water, a
toilet, a sink, soap and towels
2. Owners need to prove they have access to the restroom
3. Owners must prove they have access to a Health Department-approved commissary
where they can wash and store their trucks.33

32 City of Los Angeles Department of Public Health

33 Renaud, Jean-Paul. (2008, April, 14) Putting the brakes on East L.A.s taco trucks.
Los Angeles Times

23

Appendix F: Costs to Purchase a Lonchero

Key capital investment:
New catering truck: $60k $150k
Used catering truck: $20k $50k
Conditioning it for use: up to $45k
For rent: $1000 to $3000 (per month)

Regulations, fees:
Health license renewal (annual): $690 ($57.50 per month)
Business department permit (annual): $168 ($14 per month)
Tax registration certificate (quarterly): Varies, according to sales revenue
California Sellers Permit: Free, but requires deposit against future taxes

Labor:
One employee: $300 $600 weekly salary

Other costs (excluding supplies):

Commissary: $200 weekly ($10,400 per year)
Propane: $60 $120 weekly
Gasoline: $60 $120 weekly34

34 Chee, Morgan, Hermosillo, Jesus, and Joe, Lawrence, A Sectoral Analysis of the
Loncheras Sub-Sector in Los Angeles County
24

Appendix G: Department of Health Inspection Form

25

35

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