Taco Truck Bust Saves New York City

I read this and I thought - what an awesome display of manpower and focused management. They got EIGHT cops sitting up there looking at this truck ALL morning? Who's driving this truck, Dillinger? Too much.

The woman who owns the truck, she doesn't speak English, they give her a $55 ticket, and I can totally relate, she goes, "okay, fuck it, I still got 45 minutes." There is not a man alive who is a native of New York City that would dispute this logic or reasoning, IN ANY LANGUAGE.

And this taco truck is "unfairly competing" with businesses up there? On the Upper East Side? Can I call my Philadelphia lawyer? You're kidding, right? Guy walks by a Zagat's restaurant and goes, "to hell with this, I'm getting a taco." COME ON.

Ordinarily I would suggest a rally or something but I'm tired. Everybody who reads this should be pissed off and drive over and buy a taco. Or better yet, drive over there and go into a restaurant and go, "hey, where's the taco truck?"

It wasn't the rain that spoiled Paty's Taco Truck's first day back on the Upper East Side. It was the police.

The NYPD towed the food truck just after 1 p.m. on Tuesday in the midst of a special $1 taco deal that was meant to commemorate Paty's return to 86th Street and Lexington Avenue.

The taco truck, which has built a loyal following on the Upper East Side corner over the last two years, was ousted from the neighborhood more than a month ago, following a ticketing blitz that culminated in the arrest of the taco truck founder’s son, Alberto Loera, and the truck's towing.

The battle continued on Tuesday.

"They told us we had to move or we'd be towed," Loera explained as the cops rigged the food truck to the tow truck.

They gave Paty's truck a $55 summons saying it was not allowed to sell merchandise from a metered spot, Loera said. His mother, Patricia Monroy, who does not speak English, made the ultimate decision to stay put once her family translated what the cops were saying.

"My mother felt like she was not breaking the law," Loera said. "We still had 45 minutes on the meter."

Roughly eight officers in a police van had been monitoring Paty's the entire morning, said Sean Basinski, director of the Street Vendor Project, an advocacy group based at the Urban Justice Center.

Loera had reached out to the Street Vendor Project after his Nov. 29 arrest, and members of the organization joined Paty's for Tuesday's return to raise awareness on issues vendors face: harassment from law enforcement and city ofices, a harsh ticketing system and excessive punishment and regulations confusing to vendors and cops alike.

But no one anticipated the towing.

Paty's had faced the ire of several residents on Community Board 8, who complain about food trucks in the area. They worry the trucks are illegally hogging metered parking spots and that they are unfairly competing with struggling brick-and-mortar stores.

[DNAinfo.com]