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.

This reminded me of this oblique shot my mother took of the Mission a few months back:

Rotated, de-Noed and un-Potrerod.

And now, with microhood names – click on the image to zoom past the WordPress 450 pixel width limit.

By request, a 144 dpi version (2.3 MB).

Alas, no. The red circles show a 1500′ radius around public junior high and high schools — the land where food trucks are forbidden. Click to zoom. (Hoping for an interactive map soon — am I missing something, or is it obscenely difficult to draw circles in Google Earth?)

UPDATE: Board of sups food truck ban does not apply to elementary schools.  (That explains the ice cream trucks.)

UPDATED UPDATE: Reader emamd points out that the 1500′ limit is around the school property line, not the entrance, so you’d get a map something like the even wider doughnuts above vs circles around the entrance.

UPDATE++: The old St. James (25th & Florida), now the California School Age Families Education (Cal-SAFE) county high school is in question – that’s the blue circle.

For those late to this party, our Board of Supervisors passed a law banning food trucks from within 1500 feet of a school as part of the SFUSD “Wellness” policy.  However, there is no distinction made between predatory trucks that target children and ‘gourmet’ trucks that cater to consenting adults.

This law is draconian and needs to be changed. 1500′ means no food truck can legally operate in Dolores Park. And for some perspective, pot clubs only have to be 500 to 1000 feet away from a school.

I have little sympathy for the school board nutritionistas’ argument that responsible taco trucks like El Tonayense set children into some sort of downward food spiral — especially when they don’t eat at the truck but instead go to the restaurants next to the school.  The point is not that I have to go an extra two blocks to get a taco from El Tonayense, it’s that food trucks have been banned in half the damn city.  This law, no matter how well intentioned, goes too far.

For the record, I do not condone food trucks gathering around school entrances selling kids chips and soda. I think we can all agree that this is bad. But to dive into hyperbole and paint *all* food trucks with that same brush is intellectually dishonest. Oh great legal minds of the city, how do we get the Sups to pass a more reasonable law?  500 feet and show ID during the school day?  Express your vote over at Mission Loc@l (middle right of the page).

This SF Weekly article asks why we don’t have more food trucks in this of all cities. This law is certainly part of the problem. In New York they practically throw street food at you as you walk by, and in LA there are revolutionary food delivery mechanisms such as a korean taco truck that twitters its location each night. (Take that, line!) Imagine singapore noodle carts, oh, would that not be lovely?

Instead we have guerilla food trucks, or legal trucks cordoned into food ghettos.  (That being said, the future site of Valencia Street Park is in a safe zone. We welcome you, foodie truck entrepreneurs!)

I had never actually been inside City Hall.  Quite nice.

Up on the fourth floor hearing room, I ran into ‘emamd’, aka Armand, from Mission Loc@l. (No I did not take a panorama of him, sorry ladies.)

Anyway, to the point — the Board of Appeals upheld the revocation of El Tonayense’s permit, but stayed the decision until June 9th. In English, this means that El Tonayense got their permit pulled because they are within 1500 feet of a school, but the board is giving them a couple of months in an effort to get a compromise worked out.  From what the board and the lawyer said, they will be working with David Campos.

El Tonayense’s lawyer pushed for a grandfather exemption, as seems to have happened in the past, but he was up against many barriers. Ridiculous as the law may be in El Tonayense’s case, the truck is within the limit (albeit the back of the school, and with few if any student customers), and the SNPAC Nutritionistas are taking a pretty hard-ass stance.

• Best piece of evidence – a picture of a 3 inch wide burrito in front of the chain-link fence with 1 inch holes.
• Most interesting comparison – for domestic abuse you often see only a 500 ft stay away order, not 1500ft
• Most ironic revelation (at least relative to my previous article) – Gateway High School (a charter school) is looking to hire El Tonayense for lunch twice a week!

The law has good intentions. In our society, easy food is too often unhealthy food. Before the law, food vendors would collect outside the front of schools and sell candy, potato chips and soda. Obviously bad.  But I find the school board nutritionistas to be intellectually dishonest.  They did their damnedest to try to paint El Tonayense as a cause of the declining health of students, but it simply is not.  They cling to Tonayense’s unwillingness to move two blocks as some sort of evidence that ET secretly wishes to poison the minds and bodies of the O’Connell student body. They raised the spectre of armies of food trucks at the door of John O’Connell if El Tonayense is grandfathered in.  Best quote from Nutritionista Waldow (via ML) – While she failed to clearly connect the truck to poor student health, Woldow maintained that she had “no proof that the truck is helping students to become thin.”

In six years of going to the truck, I haven’t seen kids there. While I am sure there are some on occasion, the student body just doesn’t frequent the truck (which in my burrito-centered mind is a problem!)  When the principal and vice-principal of the school don’t see the truck as a threat to the lunch program, you have to take a step back. The issue is many students do not like the cafeteria food, and there’s a double standard for food trucks vs restaurants.

The board seemed to struggle with the case.  I got the impression of reluctance from the cops and skepticism from the commissoners.  Commissioners Goh and Peterson asked if they really had jurisdiction.  Fung was focusing on the fact that El Tonayense was given no notice after the law was passed. Commissioners Garcia was pushing hardest for a compromise (he asked for the stay) and Commissioner Mandelman seemed most sympathetic to the law being overkill for El Tonayense.Let’s hope that Campos and the Board of Supervisors can bring some sort of compromise that doesn’t punish adults while maintaining the spirit of the law (or perhaps write a better law).

At one point, a commissioner mentioned “good truck, bad truck”.  El Tonayense is not the bad truck, and regardless of the nutritionista repetitive dogma, it simply is not causing the downfall of the San Francisco school lunch program.

“The San Francisco school lunch program is a clear failure,” noted President of the Board David Chiu. “When students would rather fast for seven hours or jump the fence rather than eat at the O’Connell cafeteria there’s a serious problem. El Tonayense tacos are tasty and healthy, especially compared to the current soggy, undercooked and wet offerings at ‘The Beanery’.”

El Tonayense, a popular taco truck, had simply intended to appeal the 2007 city ordinance that banned mobile food vendors from being within 1500 feet of a school.  Benjamin Santana, the truck’s owner, left today’s meeting in a state of shock.  “We really didn’t expect this.  We thought we were going to have to move, but we didn’t expect to be *closer* to the school.”

While students will have access to El Tonayense all day, local customers are unhappy to learn that they will only have access to El Tonayense from 1:30 to 2:30pm, after lunch is served to the students.  Lipra Sloof is a software developer who works nearby. “This is ridiculous – there’s only a one hour window for the general public to get tacos?  I don’t eat at the same time every day.” Other regulars were seen sizing the exterior fence, especially regulars at Mission Cliffs. “I could totally climb that, even with an al pastor in one hand,” said a customer who wished to remain anonymous.

The Board of Supervisors have little sympathy for inconvenienced taco lovers.  “Education takes priority over dining convenience,” said David Campos, District 9 Supervisor. “The Board sees this as a tool to increase student attendance as well as improve student health.”

Janet Schulze, the principal of John O’Connell, agrees.  “Interest in John O’Connell has skyrocketed. Hundreds of parents have moved O’Connell to the top of their school lottery picks. We’ve even had inquiries into GED and continuing education programs. We may have to start night classes.”

In a rare show of unaninimity, Mayor Gavin Newsom and Supervisor Daly issued a joint press release describing plans to expand the program throughout the city. During their press conference, Newsom and Daly noted enthusiasm from unexpected sources. “We were most surprised by Gus Murad’s application for a charter school permit at the current Medjool site.  We think we can make excellent use of the rooftop bar as a city garden to supply our new cafeteria program.”

Neighboring schools are scrambling to find food partners.  Mission High Principal Eric Guthertz has placed several calls to neighborhood restaurants with little success. “Delfina told me they are booked a month out, and Bar Tartine didn’t return my call.  Anthony and Karen of Mission Street Food told me that there was no way they would wear the required hair nets.”  Many Mission restaurants are now screening calls from schools.  “No way I am getting sucked into this socialist nightmare,” said Ruggero Gadaldi, Beretta’s chef/owner.  “This is too much even for this city.”

Principle Guthertz is holding out hope though. “The Magic Curry Kart has expressed interest, as has the Suriya Thai crew.”

Dana Woldow, head of the Student Nutrition and Physical Activity Committee, was unavailable for comment.

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.

MenuPage’s truckdate = either March 25th or April 8th. Mission Loc@l thinks April 1st (appropriate given how much of a joke the whole thing is). I believe this is the 4th or 5th time a date has been set.

Meanwhile, students at O’Connell High choose to go 7 hours without food rather than eat the free school lunch that El Tonayense supposedly threatens.

Our friends at Mission Loc@l did some real reporting on the school lunch program that students literally flee.

I figured it was bad, but not this bad. Most kids either won’t eat the free lunches, or Steve McQueen the fence to buy a ham sandwich.

Of the total school population of 744, 75 percent or about 560 students are eligible for the free and reduced lunch program, yet the cafeteria serves only 140 to 160 students a day, according to cafeteria coordinator Rosalina Navarroza.…

Steiner [the school nurse] sympathizes with students who don’t eat the free lunch. “I wouldn’t eat it and I personally don’t think it’s very good,” she said.

Without other options, most like senior Carla Santos, simply go without food during the day. “I wait until after school to eat. You will never see me eat in the cafeteria because it doesn’t taste like real food, she said.

While some wait out a more than seven- hour day without eating, others like sophomore John Michaels tries to skip class 10-15 minutes before the lunch bell rings so that he can buy lunch off campus. He works to avoid school resource officers who guard the school gates because only seniors on good standing have permission to leave campus during lunch.“ I have gotten detention for this many times” explained Michaels.

At Tortas El Primo, the popular Mexican sandwich shop two blocks away from the school, server Franco Mata Perez said students often call in their orders ahead of time so that they don’t have to worry about a wait….  His brother Arthur Perez who works the cash register says most students order a ham sandwich that sells for $4.50 with a free soda….

But as senior Edith Ruiz explained, not all students have the money to eat off campus. “I can’t afford outside food so I don’t even bother leaving,” she said looking at the cheese quesadilla she has pulled off the free lunch line.  “The cheese tastes nasty but its food and I’m hungry, she says.

Glad to see the hard work of the Student Physical Activity Nutritional Kommitte (SPANK) helping the students NOT EACH LUNCH.

“Student and parent run food sales, for example, have been prohibited since 2003. According to the school’s Wellness Center policy brief,  “Competitive food sales at lunch time drain money from the lunch line and Beanery operations causing lunch line menus to drop in quality because more students choose competitive foods instead.”

As we can see, eliminating the competition is clearly working out to the students’ benefit.  (And remember SPANK are the ones NOT going after ice cream trucks in front of elementary schools — as per Dana “That’s a separate battle someone else will have to fight” Woldow. Yes, El Tonayense is the real problem here.)

Currently federal and state government reimburses SFUSD for free meals for about $2.20 per meal.

You can get two of the finest (and probably healthiest) tacos in the world for $2.50 at El Tonayense.  I say crash the fence, cross the playground and pull up behind the cafeteria, El Capitan Benjamin Santana.  You’d be doing the students a favor.

Hell, I’ll build a burrito cannon and shoot tacos over the playground fence myself.

Drill into SF, and you can see El Tonayense has quite the empire. (Don’t forget that El Tonayense’s hearing got postponed  to March 11.  I will post any details I figure out re time and opportunities for public comment.)

I especially like YumTaco’s mascot, “Spongebob Taco.”

Mission Mission has an official seal.  I think it’s about time that Burrito Justice had a mascot.  Unfortunately, I can’t draw and my burritos end up looking like sad little squashed envelopes.  Any suggestions?