First Friday Efforts to Move Food Trucks Stymied

Parking will be near to impossible, businesses will be open late, and crowds of people will arrive.

It's First Friday again, and many of the attendees will have been lured by the 40 or so food trucks lining Abbot Kinney Boulevard.

First Friday started as a quiet way for merchants along the street to build up the neighborhood's profile, but it now has a reputation as being crowded, messy and filled with mostly non-locals. 

And the food trucks, which capitalized on the popularity of First Friday and then became an attraction unto themselves, have been saddled with most of the blame. 

But getting rid of the food trucks, or simply moving them off Abbot Kinney, has proved daunting, mostly because they were never part of the plan to begin with.

"It was never a big-budget operation, and we never applied for permits on anything because it was really just a collaborative thing," said Carol Tantau, head of the Abbot Kinney Merchants Association.

"The vast majority of the businesses on the street are very angry at the trucks," she said.

Tantau recently sent surveys to 125 Abbot Kinney merchants, and out of the 55 responses she received, 80 percent said that they would be willing to restrict all parking on the street, if it meant getting rid of the food trucks outside their doors. (It's currently impossible under city law to ban parking for food trucks, but not other vehicles).

Tantau has been working with Venice resident Matt Geller, CEO of the SoCal Mobile Food Vendors' Association, to find a way to keep food trucks and their accompanying garbage, noise and smell from clogging the street and permeating businesses. So far, the duo's plan to restrict parking for the evening has been stymied by the city's red tape.

At the Venice Neighborhood Council meeting in September, Geller said that he had worked out a way to cut down on the food trucks, but after speaking to staff at the city's Bureau of  Street Services and Department of Transportation, no one would approve Geller's requested "No Parking" signs.

"I want to help," said Geller, whose association already pays about $550 after every First Friday to clean the street and empty the garbage cans. "I am from Venice," he added, "but if nobody's going to help me do it, I can't do it."

In order to restrict parking for the night, someone needs to apply for "special event" permits and pay the accompanying fees.

Geller said he would like to put the food trucks in the Westminster Elementary parking lot, but he is still waiting on the city attorney's office to clarify L.A.M.C. 80.73, which says mobile food units may not park less than 500 feet from school property. Geller thinks the restriction should apply during school hours only.

Officer Peggy Thusing, the senior lead officer for Venice, also tried this month to facilitate no parking along the street.

"City Council refused to waive the fee, because this event is an event that they really should have a permit for," Thusing said. "In order to continue it, they need to do it properly, shut down the streets and get all the business owners involved."

The issue is not just food trucks—or the garbage they leave behind. First Fridays have gotten increasingly rambunctious, with illegal parties, open container violations and noise. Thusing said that the LAPD always handles more calls on First Fridays.

"Unfortunately, it's an atmosphere that requires major amount of security to control," she said.