Free Republic

.... This clash between the police, brick-and-mortar restaurants and the truck food scene is not unique to Los Angeles. The business climate is worse in San Francisco. Initial setup costs for a truck food vendor in San Francisco can be as much as $150,000, according to the organizers of San Francisco Street Food Festival. Food and business permit costs an additional $10,000 per year. With those high-start up costs, one marvels at how most of these trucks can keep their costs down to less than $8 per dish. One Korean fusion taco truck vendor called Seoul on Wheels wasn’t able...

Next step will be citing owners of Jefferson lots Tacos, burritos, quesadillas and other Latin American fare remained for sale at mobile kitchens in Jefferson Parish on Monday even as inspectors set in motion a crackdown on the rolling restaurants. Parish officials said five food stands were violating a new law that effectively bans vending trucks. Their next move will be citing the owners of lots where the trucks are parked. The food vendors, meanwhile, said they will try to hang on as long as they can before their landlords, facing possible fines, make them leave. The showdown follows a...

SALINAS -- Jose Martinez left Mexico around 1988 and toiled for years in a patchwork of fields here, harvesting berries and lettuce and barely making ends meet. In 2002, Martinez took advantage of a city law created to help novice entrepreneurs start businesses related to the city's largely Latino cultural heritage. He bought a taco truck, one of 31 licensed mobile catering vehicles in Salinas, and built it into a modestly profitable operation. But the City Council, responding to a business group and its most vocal members -- the owners of Mexican restaurants -- is poised to vote next month...