"Taco Trucks On Every Corner," The Reality -- For People Like Me Whose Homes Smell Like Taco Trucks
LA Times columnist Steve Lopez asks, "So what exactly could be wrong with having taco trucks on every corner?":
Last week, GOP presidential candidate Donald Trump made another tough-guy speech about deportations and immigration. Then Marco Gutierrez, a founder of Latinos for Trump, got nearly as much attention for a comment he made in defending his candidate of choice."My culture is a very dominant culture and it's imposing and it's causing problems," Gutierrez said on national television. "If you don't do something about it, you're going to have taco trucks on every corner."
Well, here in Los Angeles, we can tell the rest of the nation what that's like.
First of all, it smells really, really good, all the time. Let's say you can't sleep, so you roll out of bed and decide you're hungry, but it's 2 a.m.
No problem.
Open a window, take a deep breath and follow the scent of sizzling meat, onions and peppers to the nearest taco truck.
Huge exaggeration for most people in LA. Or, probably to be more correct, absolute bullshit.
Also, I respect entrepreneurs and think it's great that people make a living from food trucks.
However: "First of all, it smells really, really good, all the time."
I live near a business that has food trucks in its lot every night and during the entire weekend.
Restaurants have to vent their cooking odors, especially if there are homes nearby.
Food trucks do not.
Consider that you actually might not want your house to smell like a taco truck. Or the Kogi truck. Or whatever. Because the wind blows from the trucks toward my house, my alternative is often swelter with all the windows closed or have my house smell like a greasy spoon.
Oh, and the trucks are long-gone before 2 a.m.
And P.S. The worst food truck odor to have blowing in your house is the fish one.
For those who like beer imagine the smell of fine hops just rolling out of the hills. A giant cloud covering the town. And mixed in with that bleach and other chemicals. I used to live near the Coors plant in Colorado. When they cleaned the vats the whole town would get a whiff. I can't drink a beer without getting nauseous.
Ben at September 5, 2016 6:29 AM
Bourbon Street in New Orleans reeked of beer and vomit when I was there. Yuck.
(The smell of beer does not bother me (I simmered hot dogs in beer for a catering job one summer).)
Bob in Texas at September 5, 2016 6:47 AM
Hate the smell of beer.
On a clear day, I could probably set the Kogi truck on fire just by glaring at it.
Nothing like having your living room reek of Korean BBQ all afternoon.
Amy Alkon at September 5, 2016 8:58 AM
Except those taco trucks don't pay all the taxes that regular taco stands and carry-outs have to pay. Lopez knows full-well that LA makes it very difficult to do this sort of vending. remember the bacon-wrapper hot dog seller?
KateC at September 5, 2016 9:29 AM
Can you imagine one food truck on every corner in La Jolla/Bel Air/Beverly Hills?
Specially during the Summer months in the afternoon when the trash bins start to ooze that perfume coming from discarded salsas like Kimchi, Chimichurri, Chismol, and/or Pico de Gallo.
Sixclaws at September 5, 2016 10:37 AM
I've never had a food truck smell problem. Of course, I live on five acres (which isn't much, actually) on a bluff overlooking the Columbia River backed by a national forest, bereft of neighbors.
If one choses to live in a high population density part of the world, one must put up with people and their odors. It's just like that.
Steve Daniels at September 5, 2016 10:44 AM
re Steve Daniels:
That's where zoning laws come in to play. Except for a few years after college I've lived in "neighborhoods" for decades.
Street traffic is a given but party houses, band practice houses, and meth houses are not pleasant to be around. I would not like the traffic, trash, and noise of a food truck either.
Guess it's all about what one is used to. It seems like a lot of youth today have an entirely different concept of "normal" than this old white guy.
Bob in Texas at September 5, 2016 4:13 PM
Remember people, all alcohol is literally the piss, watery shit, and dead decomposing bodies of microscopic organisms filtered thru the fossilized remains of billions years dead algae.
lujlp at September 5, 2016 4:29 PM
And P.S. The worst food truck odor to have blowing in your house is the fish one.
That is very unfortunate, but you know what they say: if it smells like fish . . .
mpetrie98 at September 5, 2016 5:26 PM
Smells like Tijuana.
momof4 at September 5, 2016 8:59 PM
"Bourbon Street in New Orleans reeked of beer and vomit when I was there. Yuck."
Yeah, Bourbon Street is a tourist trap (and hangout for pickpockets). You have to go to the less visited parts of the Quarter to find the good stuff. I tell people who are going there for the first time, "You need to walk down Bourbon Street (in the daytime) once, so you can say you did it. Then you'll never have to do it again."
Cousin Dave at September 6, 2016 6:54 AM
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