LA: Officially Better Than New York

For those of you that don't know the history:

About six months ago, an ordinance was spearheaded by L.A. district one supervisor Gloria Molina, severely restricting taco trucks in unincorporated ares of Los Angeles. Under the law, if trucks remained parked in one location for over an hour the owners faced fines of up to $1,000 and a possible six-month jail term. To make matters worse, over 60% of all of Los Angeles County is unincorporated, not to mention nearly all of East LA, so the ordinance banned taco trucks in all but name.

This is not to say I went without tacos. Let's not get too carried away with ourselves here. I ate plenty. But, it was not so easy Living in an incorporated area, trucks became few and far between, and one night, at Taco Zone on Alvarado and Glendale, m friend Spencer set down his horchata (no homo) on the ledge of the truck, when it pulled away and sped down the block. He was horrified.


Yesterday, a LA county supreme court justice struck down the ban, calling the language and description of how quickly a vendor could return to a previously held spot "vague" and therefore "unconstitutional."

Unlike the self-proclaimed "center of the world," when the gentrification lobby strikes in LA, people fight back. They don't just sit idly by and let their mayor transform their city into a horribly clean and boring place. They do not let their local governments enforce quality of life crimes to such an extent where every single hot dog and knish vendor require licenses and books can no longer be sold on the sidewalk of Greenwich Village. They do not permit their city to be stripped of its character and soul.

And to those who gaze at LA from a distance and see little else but smog, sprawl, and self-absorption, it might be time to give LA another chance, or more likely, a first chance, as LA has an uncanny ability to be hated on by people who have never even set foot there. Let's just remember for all the supposed "fakeness" of Los Angelenos, they stand up for what they believe in and fight to keep their own vision of their city in tact. And they manage to do this without being "pushy" or "in your face" or whatever the hell else New Yorkers constantly try and remind people that they are. So here's a question, to all the "pushy" New Yorkers, what was the last thing New Yorkers actually pushed for?

I'll expect a list.

Los Angeles has always struck me as one of the most aesthetically democratic of cities. The beaches are public, half the museums are free and culinary glory is sold at every street corner for almost nothing.