[sent to the Anaheim Council in advance of the upcoming meeting Tuesday Sept. 9]
For the last two months, starting right around when Trump’s ICE raids really started hitting Anaheim in July, Anaheim police (specifically Officers Stahoviack #2214 and Edgar #2461) have been ticketing and towing our neighborhood food trucks. It is a huge injury and insult to Anaheim’s Latino communities, and something the food truck owners cannot afford and don’t deserve.
The ticketing and towing is justified by ordinance 4.32.206, from 2018. This ordinance says that if a vehicle is over 7 feet high (and most food trucks are 10 feet high) it cannot be parked on a residential street for any length of time, or else the city is allowed to seize it.
1. This ordinance, for better or worse, was aimed at another group of people the 2018 Council didn’t like – folks who live in RV’s. It was never intended to be used against barrio food trucks.
2. Many of these food trucks have operated, with permits, for at least 30 years or more, with no problems.
3. I see that later in 14.32.330 it says officers of the City are “authorized and empowered to remove” these vehicles. It doesn’t say they have to. If some misbegotten instruction was given two months ago to begin enforcing this code against food trucks, then please immediately revoke that instruction.
4. Starting at 14.32.206.030 there is a long list of exemptions. Food trucks should be added to this list.
5. The tickets should also be revoked, and the hundreds of dollars these small Latino businessfolks paid to get their towed vehicles (and livelihoods) back should be refunded – they really cannot afford this.
Thank you for this attention to this matter, as the President would say. We all really hope to see some action on this by Tuesday!
YES ….!!! Happy Day …
The “new” Anaheim Chamber of Commerce should be all over this.
Aha. Good one.
Let’s see. Dara and Mike are both aware.
Mike?
Yeah Johnson. “Chairman of the Board.” After I wrote this he drove by Anna Drive to check out the situation and discuss solutions.
CEO Dara is gonna be at a Monday meeting about it too.
MEANWHILE… tried to call the Police Chief last night, and today a Captain Duckwitz called me back, whose purview this falls under.
He said a lot, but the most useful thing was that officers ONLY ticket/tow food trucks if somebody complains about that particular one. He suggested it could be new folks who move into the neighborhood who don’t share us old-timers’ fondness for the vehicles.
I reached a different conclusion, given that this is happening across the city and all started at the same time, last July, coinciding with ICE raids. Theory I’M going with is there is one or two immigrant haters driving around and finding food trucks to complain about.
Either way, the ordinance needs to be changed by council. Like NOW.
Wait if they are not permitted and are businesses making unknown money why are they allowed to operate? The restaurants have to pay taxes and whatever but not these guys? Seems fair to get in trouble to me.
Well, you probably read too fast, I did write “Many of these food trucks have operated, with permits, for at least 30 years or more, with no problems.”
And I didn’t go down too many factual rabbit-holes in this piece either, wanting to keep it concise.
But yeah. There are different kinds of food trucks in Anaheim, we are talking mainly about the “produce trucks” of which there are about 85. You assume they don’t have permits, they have plenty of fucking permits. They have city permits, OC health dept permits, the owners have to get fingerprinted at APD and have background checks, and have licenses. And they pay taxes. They got $2000 in expenses every month with stuff like that.
And the other trucks – “lunch truck,” or “catering” or “hot” truck – they have to do even more – CUP (Conditional Use Permit) and a “Commissary Permit.”
So no.
Who wants to look at a large commercial dirty box truck parked on a residential street every night. Not me or anyone with common sense
They need to figure it out.
Sounds like Ben’s not a food truck guy. Oh well, I bet Ben doesn’t have one in his neighborhood anyway!
He may not, but Anaheim has regulations about trucks parked on the streets overnight.
They may, but these are not the regulations that are being enforced against them.
You sank my taco acorazada!
Looks like this is working out, fingers crossed. Enforcement of the ordinance is suspended for 30 days until it’s fixed, and if need be it’ll be suspended again. We want to have the tickets rescinded and especially the money returned that produce truck owners spent getting their trucks back from the tow yard – they had to pay from $500 to $1500.
Helpful: Councilwomen Norma Kurtz and Kristen Maahs, Chamber CEO Dara Mileki, and organizer Mariana Angeles.