Food Trucks Bullied Again, Evicted In Hawthorne

Photo by Ricardo Diaz via the LAist Featured Photos pool

Anyone who indulged (and/or overindulged) in this past Saturday's LA Street Food Fest understands the beauty of L.A. food trucks. Hawthorne officials, however, do not, as reported by The Daily Breeze.

A Best Buy parking lot in Hawthorne became a once-weekly home to a dozen food trucks in June, spurring a recurring Tuesday night mobile eatery extravaganza. Claiming that the gatherings violated the city's Municipal Code, officials halted the event just weeks after its inception.

Per interim City Manager Arnie Shadbehr, the current Municipal Code restricts food trucks to 30 minutes when parking on private property. Additionally, trucks may only serve those living or working on that property.

Disgruntled fans created the Twitter page "HawthorneDDaGG" to voice complaints concerning the eviction.

Major Larry Guidi believes the presence of food trucks may potentially divert patrons of established local restaurants and negatively affect businesses. He pledges food truck support under certain circumstances and will collaborate with city staff members to outline regulations for future food truck gatherings.

"I don't want to hurt our local businesses and restaurants," Guidi said. "I like the idea of having a special events permit so we can control it and collect fees."

The Best Buy food truck event's organizer, Carson-based event promoter Glenn Debaca, notes that food truck operators will gladly cooperate and pay for business licenses to work in the city.

"The city isn't looking at the big picture and that this is bringing revenue into the city," said Debaca. "This is a young crowd, it's what's new and what's hot. We need this."

Other South Bay cities - Torrance, Redondo Beach, Hermosa Beach and San Pedro - permit food trucks to park in private lots with permission from the owners.

Operator of Barbie's Q food truck, John Bowler, is a former Hermosa Beach mayor and urges Hawthorne to modify its current policy.

"A lot of South Bay cities have old regulations that were really meant to regulate trucks that went to construction sites or that sort of thing," Bowler said. "This whole new truck phenomenon has appeared within the last two years. South Bay cities are having to adapt and look at this differently."

Eviction protestors hope for an accommodating resolve by summer's end.