False allegations of racism by mobile food vendors

[PACMAN]

Below is an exchange on the Charlotte Observer Blog regarding allegations of racism by mobile food vending truck industry. Ed Garber finally gets the opportunity to address the allegations of racism head on and restore the integrity of Charlotte East.

This Land News and ideas on immigration
Wednesday, May 20, 2009
Franco Ordoñez - Charllotte Obsesrver
Charlotte taco troubles get attention in L.A.

Charlotte is not the only community cracking down on taco trucks. Similar efforts have taken hold in Los Angeles, Houston, Des Moines, and Hillsboro, Ore.
The Los Angeles Times reports today that as the Latino community has grown in the United States, so have the number of taco trucks catering to them.
We reported in March that dozens of taco trucks in Charlotte have shut down since the city passed an ordinance curtailing hours and where they operate.
In the LA Times story, Kevin Johnson, dean of the UC Davis law school and a professor of law and Chicano studies, says the fight against taco trucks in Charlotte and Des Moines is another way to express anti-immigrant views.
"It's hard for me to see how this whole taco truck controversy is separate and apart from the continuing clash of cultures in the U.S.," Johnson told the paper.
Here is an excerpt about Charlotte from the LA Times story:
In Charlotte, which has a fast-growing Latino population, residents complained last year that taco trucks were camping out in office parking lots past midnight, bringing crowds and crime to nearby neighborhoods.
"They were transitioning from a place for food to a place for folks to congregate," said John Lassiter, an at-large city councilman. "A lot of these neighborhoods are older, struggling with the changing demographic, so they perceive the taco truck and the related use as negatively impacting their quality of life and potentially impacting the value of their primary asset, which is their house."
The City Council responded by passing an ordinance forcing taco trucks to shut down at 9 p.m. and ensuring that several of them could not gather in the same parking lot.

Read the next post to see the follow-up story and response from Ed Garber

[PACMAN]

This land News and ideas on immigration
Franco Ordoñez - Charllotte Obsesrver
Friday, May 22, 2009
Taco truck flap unfair to east Charlotte?

Ed Garber doesn't like what the taco truck controversy is doing to his neighborhood.
The chairman of the Eastside Political Action Committee says allegations are off base that the clampdown on the taco trucks operating on Central Avenue is a form of ethnic discrimination.
Garber, a longtime Eastside resident who graduated from Garinger High, called me yesterday concerned about a story I posted about similar efforts to reduce the number of taco trucks in Los Angeles, Houston, and Des Moines.
In a Los Angeles Times story, UC Davis law professor Kevin Johnson said the fight against taco trucks in Charlotte and Des Moines is another way to express anti-immigrant views.
Garber says that’s not true and wrongly makes Eastsiders out to look like racists. He said the working class community has long been diverse, made up of African Americans, whites, and Hispanics who have lived together peacefully for years. The only thing people in East Charlotte hate, he says, "is an unproductive person."
And he says the taco truck controversy fails to recognize all the work neighbors have done to highlight local diversity. He noted the popular Taste of the World tour, which showcases area Latino, Asian, African, and Greek restaurants.
"It’s not an ethnic thing," he said. "If you look at how people in East Charlotte live. They eat in these restaurants. We're known for the restaurants. The community is supporting the restaurants. We’re trying to market the restaurants. So for the whole community to be labeled as not accepting of Latino people and diversity it is a slap in the face."
Garber said the clampdown on mobile food vendors is really about enforcing existing laws and protecting established businesses -- some owned by Latinos -- that were losing customers because mobile food vendors didn’t follow city rules.
He stressed the 9 p.m. curfew, which many taco truck owners find egregious, was already in existence but not strictly enforced.
Another new ordinance though requires mobile food vendors to stay 400 feet from each other and from residential neighborhoods, eliminating most of the sites where trucks can park on Central Avenue.

Posted on This land
Friday, May 22, 2009
Taco truck flap unfair to east Charlotte?

From Ed Garber:
The MOBILE FOOD VENDING ORDINANCE has been very political and the media has done a great job of polarizing it.
I have never acknowledged nor will I acknowledge the term "Taco Trucks", which implies that the community (particularly in Charlotte East), sought to single out a certain ethnic food or ethnicity for any reason.
In response to the closing paragraph of the blog. No one tried to eliminate the industry, just curtail it. The vendors can find the ordinance as egregious as they want. Find one that shut it's window at 9PM as the law required. The lobbyist they hired claimed they make 60% of their sales after 9pm, openly admitting to the city council that the entire industry was breaking the law.
It was the disregard for the existing laws and the general inconsiderate demeanor of the industry toward other businesses, property rights, and neighborhoods that brought attention to the industry. It was not ethnicity. It was a great tool for the industry to use as leverage though.
Here we all are -ALL CULTURES- living in the same neighborhoods and eating at the same restaurants and no one is pushing out Latino people in those situations through the force of law.
If the industry wants to make it an issue of Ethicity, that ship doesn't float.
Corrective action was taken by the community based on the culture of the industry, not the ethnicity of the people who own or frequent them.
Thank you Franco for letting me voice the feelings that I have regarding this issue. Many people in Charlotte East have shared these sentiments with me. There is no more diverse community in Charlotte and no community I would be more proud to live in. We want our community's integrity restored.
Ed
http://www.eastsidepac.com