While we are sympathetic to the argument that food trucks are undercutting school lunch programs, the evidence and logic are thinner than a tortilla:

• High school kids, presuming they can leave campus at all, can still go to convenience stores and restaurants that are often closer than taco trucks.
• The students did not seem to be going to the taco trucks anyway.

But a new threat is on the horizon, more specifically from that not particularly useful part of Sacramento known as the State Legislature – a bill is in the works banning food trucks around ALL schools, elementary through high schools.

The esteemed data miner Brian Mount has been kind enough to create an interactive map showing the food truck banishment zone. It’s still in the works, but here’s a preliminary version.

• light red circles show the existing SF exclusion zone around high schools
• dark red circles show the proposed state expansion of the exclusion zone around primary schools
• blue dots show location of food trucks

The aggregate area of all exclusion zones is 62 square miles, greater than the size of the our 7×7 city!

• Note the circles on this map are 1650′ to account for the size of the schools themselves (assuming 300′x300′).
• The legislation is vague, and it’s not clear if private schools may or may not be included — here’s a map showing both.
• We’re looking to see what other data layers might be interesting (restaurants and convenience stores?)

We’re constantly editing the map, but this link will take you to the latest interactive version.

• see also this map of the impact on Orange County.
• Paolo Lucchesi looks at the impact of AB-1678, and interviews Assemblyman Bill Monning who tries to paint this as a war against “trucks parked up against curbs” of schools.

AB-1678 is a well meaning but poorly thought out law. None of us want trans-fat laden food trucks serving school kids. But 1500′ is complete overkill, especially in densely populated urban areas. There are ways to protect school lunch programs without punishing adults or killing off our vibrant food trucks. As a parent, I’m more upset at all the crapsicle push carts that aggregate outside elementary schools than the thought of a high school senior absconding with al pastor.

IANAL, but why not a more reasonable exclusion zone, similar to the 600′ for liquor stores, along with a ban on selling food to minors during the day?

UPDATE:

Supervisor Scott Wiener comments:

I am seriously considering legislation to reduce San Francisco’s current 1,500 foot requirement for middle and high schools. There’s no reason for the distance to be more than a city block (approximately 500 feet on average). I also question why middle schools were included in the original legislation, given that San Francisco public middle schools are all closed campuses, which I confirmed with district staff.

Here’s a map showing the impact of a 500′ radius (actually 650′, assuming the same 300′x300′ school size):

And of course, here’s an animated GIF showing the difference between this reasonable proposal and the other unreasonable one:

Let the maelstrom pour forth in the comments.

Evidence of the erstwhile negotiations below, in dramatic panoramovalvision. Red circle – old location, green circle = new location. Click oval to zoom for thousands of pixels wide. Students are safe, society has convenient access to delicious tacos.

Zoom. (Note – green circle will not appear in real life.)

Pro 1 – nice mural!

Pro 2 – tacos taste just as good in the new location.

Con 1 – no ledge on which to sit.

Con 2 – Google Maps needs to be updated.

Mission Local reports that our favorite El Tonayense truck may have come to an agreement with the police on a new location — 20 to 40 feet up the road.

“The new location would put the truck across the street from Mission Cliffs, the place, Santana said, where most of his customers come from.  He added that his new location “has more of a view” than another proposal that would move him near the PG&E building.”

Hopefully this indicates that a reasonable balance has been struck between protecting student health and delicious taco freedom. (Though I still want to try the burritos and tacos that are served in the John O’Connell High beanery.)

More details of the Tonayense negotiations over at MenuPagesSF.

I have got to get down there and try it one of these days.  Oh, California bullet train,  if only you already existed…

Current TV’s infoMania did a piece on them, click on the image below to watch the (mildly obnoxious) Ben Hoffman interview the hardest working twittering korean bbq taco truck on this sphere we call earth.

I suggest Current TV send over a couple of Kogi tacos to Kim Jong Il as trade for those Current TV reporters under arrest in North Korea. California mobile food technology — perhaps our strongest international bargaining chip.

Except for those pesky students:

Who don’t eat at the truck anyway:

Tragic in many senses: O’Connell High students would rather fast for 7 hours than eat the free school lunch, yet they aren’t allowed to eat these. And the city is trying to force El Tonayense to move in a purported effort to protect and improve the free lunch program, even though the truck was there before the school was even built.  Yet the students rarely went to the truck.  Oh, delicious irony…

Anthony Bourdain should try to eat the O’Connell “lunch” when he’s shooting his show here the week after next.

In September, police revoked El Tonayense’s permit to operate the truck, located on Harrison Street near 19th Street — two blocks from John O’Connell High School.

However, owner Benjamin Santana is appealing the decision, saying his establishment should be grandfathered in because it has been there longer than the school. As a result, the revocation is suspended pending Santana’s appeal hearing Feb. 4, according to a report from police Cmdr. Sylvia Harper.

In response to concerns that catering trucks were offering students items that were less nutritious than those on school cafeteria menus, the Board of Supervisors approved a law in March 2007 banning mobile food vendors from operating within 1,500 feet of public schools.

In July, police contacted vendors and found three violating the rules; two agreed to move, but Santana dug his heels in, according to Harper.

Go  Benjamin Santana!  Looks like a Burrito Justice meetup at his hearing on Feb 4th!

Vice Principal of the school:

“I’m often in the yard by the truck, and very few kids eat there,” [Rick] Duber said. “It’s kind of expensive for the kids.”

Co-chair of our favorite group, “The Student Nutrition and Physical Activity Committee”, Dana Woldow:

Nutrition advocates say O’Connell students frequent the truck at lunchtime, loading up on high-calorie burritos and bringing back food for classmates. One regular, Robert Bell, said kids pass him dollar bills through the fence to buy Cokes for them.

Woldow challenged the nutritional value of the food, arguing that O’Connell has some of the worst scores on California physical-fitness tests — just 22 percent of ninth-graders met all six fitness criteria on the 2007-08 test.

[Robert Bell, what the hell are you doing!  Dude, you are so not helping here.  You eat at the damn truck - do you want it to move three blocks away?  Then again, the kids can get a coke anywhere on Folsom... but still.]

But our new favorite vice-principle counters:

Duber said the food is not that bad. “Most of it’s actually very healthy,” Duber said. “Much more so than McDonald’s or KFC.”

And digging into the Burrito Justice archives:

• John O’ Connell High School’s principal, Janet Schulze, said she is supportive of the nutrition committee, but added, “The taco truck is so a non-issue for us. It doesn’t take business from the cafeteria.”

• Hypocritical position of  Dana Woldow — The Committee doesn’t go after the ice cream trucks that park in front of elementary schools: “Just a few blocks away, right next to another El Tonayense truck owned by Santana’s brother, Esquivel Santana, students from George R. Moscone Elementary School ran out to meet their parents. Ice cream sellers rang their bells tempting children with sweet snacks. The ordinance doesn’t include such vendors. “That’s a separate battle someone else will have to fight,” Woldow said.

So while O’Connell does need to work on its physical fitness program (I never see kids in that playground), they apparently have the coolest principle and vice-principle ever.  Burrito Justice salutes Janet Schulze and Rick Duber!

Burrito Slap Upside The Head goes to Robert Bell, and Burrito Vengence goes to Dana Waldow and all those on the Committee for Not Realizing The Kids Aren’t Eating At The Truck And There’s No Way A Taco Could Pass Through That Fence Behind The School.

The discussion on this idiocy continues over at Eater.

http://www.missionlocal.org

Thanks Helene! Hopefully my post-election hangover will be over by then.

(Oh, and their “should the taco truck stay?” poll shows taco lovers are defeating food haters 85% to 15%!)

“Should the Taco Truck Stay within 1500 Feet of John O’Connell?” (Middle-right of the page.)

Yes is already at 88% (36 votes), while the forces of No are at 12% (5 votes). Will Burrito Justice be served? I think you know what to do.

They also added a video of street shots with some interviews.

But check out that fence behind Art Wilinksi — no *way* are you “passing a taco” through that, even if the students Steve McQueen’d that garden fence first…

Here’s what I think is a less unreasonable suggestion — if a food truck is within 1500 feet of a school, it cannot sell to minors during the day. (Of course, the same should apply to any place that sells food. And ice cream trucks.)

I already like these folks. Any website about the Mission is already a good website. Even better when “Taco Troubles” is one of their headline articles.

Now what possible trouble could there be with tacos in the Mission? (This is certainly a problem, but arguably it is in Duboce Triangle. It is still wrong, even more so that I willingly ate at the chain as a child.)

No, our friends at the Berkeley J-school picked up on Los Troubles del Tonayense. Hélène Goupil clearly wore out some shoe leather as she got some great quotes from the protaganists, Benjamin Santana, the owner of the truck, versus Dana Woldow, co-chair of our favorite group, “The Student Nutrition and Physical Activity Committee”:

On a recent Wednesday, no students stopped to buy tacos, but Woldow said she had seen students buying food at the truck, and passing food to students through the fence.

“If they don’t sell to kids then why are they so insistent on staying in that location?” Woldow asked.

That day, Santana received a letter from the police telling him he has to leave. He now plans on appealing and is hopeful about the outcome. The police, he said, have been very nice to him. “They showed up here and gave me a letter from another case in Twin Peaks. They appealed it and they won,” he said.

Good to know it is being appealed, and glad to see the cops being cool about it. Do these things get public hearings? And could you actually pass a taco through a chain link fence? (*Would* any taco eater risk such a manoeuver given the risk of destabilizing the structural integrity of a taco?)

More importantly, I bet Ms. Waldow doesn’t realize there’s a fenced-off garden between the soccer field and the fence.

Quotes from Reasonable People:

• John O’ Connell High School’s principal, Janet Schulze, said she is supportive of the nutrition committee, but added, “The taco truck is so a non-issue for us. It doesn’t take business from the cafeteria.”
• When asked if he thinks El Tonayense means less money for the school cafeteria, Wilinski (a customer) laughed and took another big bite out of his burrito.”… “It’s not like they’re drug dealers,” he said.

Best of all? The Committee doesn’t go after the ice cream trucks that park in front of elementary schools:

Just a few blocks away, right next to another El Tonayense truck owned by Santana’s brother, Esquivel Santana, students from George R. Moscone Elementary School ran out to meet their parents. Ice cream sellers rang their bells tempting children with sweet snacks. The ordinance doesn’t include such vendors.

“That’s a separate battle someone else will have to fight,” Woldow said.

Maybe Santana can buy a bell and fool the the Committee for Student Nutrition and Hypocritical Activity.

Burrito Justice’s Binding Verdict: Repeal the ordinance.

Sadly, Burrito Justice’s jurisdiction decreases at the inverse square of distance. But Santana and his El Tonayense truck of happiness should get grandfathered if this silly ordinance can’t get repealed. Hell, he can promise not to sell to minors and “The Committee” can spend its time posting guards outside El Faro.

Apparently the proximity of the taco truck to O’Connell High creates two classes of students, have (tacos) and have-not (tacos), and somehow puts the school lunch program in jeopardy.

Burrito Justice’s Verdict?  DENIED:

• The truck was there before the school.
• Only seniors can go off campus for lunch
• The principal himself goes to the truck for lunch
• According to the City Star, NO students went to the taco truck.

And here’s an interesting new city law:

Last year, city officials passed a law prohibiting “mobile food vendors” from peddling their wares within 1,500 feet of any school to complement the “wellness policy”

While Burrito Justice’s experience with school lunches harkens back to Reagan Administration era “ketchup is a vegetable” and mountains of government cheese, we strongly suspect that quality of school food has not improved greatly and let’s face it, El Tonayense has quality tacos.  In fact, we declare that El Tonayense IMPROVES the city’s “wellness policy” especially if “pizza day” is still the same as it was.

In fact, EaterSF suggested the school contract out school lunches to El Tonayense a day or two a week.  The parent running the program enforcing the “wellness” policy blames the SEIU and USDA bureaucracy.

The real tragedy here? NONE of the kids were even going to the taco truck. This highlights a travesty in critical thinking skills of the seniors in that school. Oh, and say the kids WERE hitting the truck — would moving three blocks away really stop them?

A taco denied is justice denied.  Viva la Justicia del Burrito!