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Volume 8 Issue 302
Santa Monica Daily Press COMFY COSTUMES SEE PAGE 9
We have you covered
THE FOOD ON WHEELS ISSUE
Methane gas at nearby landfill concerns locals BY MELODY HANATANI Daily Press Staff Writer
STEWART STREET A new issue is brewing in the neighborhood battle against a proposal to build a train maintenance yard in a historically working-class community, one that involves a giant decades-old pile of trash. The Pico Neighborhood Association recently raised concerns about the possible dangers of placing the maintenance facility across from Stewart Street Park, which was built on top of a former landfill that releases low levels of methane gas. “The mixture of methane ground contamination with high electrical voltage could trigger an explosion,” Maria Loya, co-chair of the neighborhood organization, said. “This is a residential community with families where there’s a park, where there’s an elementary school close by. “It’s a major concern of ours and we want the (Exposition Construction Authority) and city of Santa Monica to push toward some assessment.” The long-awaited arrival of the Exposition Light Rail to Santa Monica has been celebrated in the traffic-plagued community but has brought headaches for residents in the Pico Neighborhood where there’s support for an electric train line but opposition to the proposed location of a maintenance facility across the street from homes on Exposition Boulevard. It was more than 70 years ago that a clay company moved onto the corner of Stewart Street and Delaware Avenue and excavated a large pit to make bricks. When the operation ceased years later, City Hall filled the hole with construction waste, eventually covering it with a park. The landfill today lies beneath the park and approximately 50 percent of the Santa Monica City Yards where City Hall’s own maintenance services, including fleet management, are headquartered and the Santa Monica Fire Department conducts training exercises. In June of 1998, City Hall launched a landfill gas mitigation system, capturing and SEE GAS PAGE 10
Brandon Wise brandonw@smdp.com
FOOD ON THE GO: Stephen Lau (center) collects orders from customers outside his Chef On Wheels catering van on Stewart Street on Tuesday afternoon. "The food is more cost effective than going to restaurants," said Chris Fusco (far left) from Sony Computer Entertainment.
Faddish food trucks meet resistance from Downtown restaurant owners BY MELODY HANATANI Daily Press Staff Writer
DOWNTOWN The marinated Korean beef short ribs, organic salads and Vietnamese grilled pork sandwiches might be mouthwatering to the long lines of patrons they attract, but the recent influx of the mobile food fad into Santa Monica isn’t as welcomed by the established restaurant owners with whom they directly compete. The increased presence of the reinvented food truck, a drastic image change from the “roach coach” favorite of construction workers, has recently been the subject of concern in Downtown where restaurant owners complain about customers lost to a mobile entity that neither has to pay rent
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nor assessment fees to conduct business in a coveted location. While Mexican taco trucks have long been fixtures in Santa Monica, joined several years ago by the organic Green Truck, the latest food trend exploded in the local scene recently with the arrival of Kogi, which sells Korean-inspired barbecue beef tacos, the similar Calbi Korean BBQ and the Nom Nom Truck, which serves Vietnamese banh mi sandwiches. Beverly Hills-based Sprinkles has also joined the fad, launching the new Sprinklesmobile, selling cupcakes at the Brentwood Country Mart on 26th Street. The issue was discussed during the Bayside District Corp.’s board meeting on Thursday when representatives from the
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Santa Monica Police Department gave a brief presentation about current regulations for mobile food vendors. The board referred the matter to the Land & Asset Committee for further review. “I think if these people benefit from the Bayside District, they should have to pay for it,” Barbara Bryan, a board member who owns the Interactive Cafe on Broadway, said. All mobile food trucks are required to have a vendor permit through the SMPD and business license from City Hall to legally operate. The trucks can conduct business in any legal parking spot but are limited to 30 minutes after which they must move at SEE TRUCKS PAGE 11