Los Angeles Is Ending Its War on Street Food: New at Reason

The Los Angeles City Council voted last week to legalize street food. That’s great news. But, as so often happens, the devil rests in the details. The city’s current plan lacks details and the legalization vote is little more than a statement of intent.

Worryingly, last week’s vote did nothing to stop the powerful L.A. County Department of Public Health this week from shuttering a beloved underground barbecue pop-up restaurant. An inspector from the Los Angeles County Health Department showed up at a brewery where Moo’s Craft Barbecue was set to serve lunch and ordered Moo’s to close.

Los Angeles is home to tens of thousands of illegal street-food vendors—a mix of immigrants and low-income Angelenos seeking to meet the demand for a cheap, authentic, and tasty meal on the go. They continue to exist even though Los Angeles has been waging war on street food for at least a decade. And if the L.A. City Council can’t control its health department, writes Baylen Linnekin, vendors may not be out of the woods just yet.

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