Food trucks in Granada Hills.. My thoughts here

Your Food Truck Stalkers are not ones to take sides in political debate.
Particularly when it involves local politics and regulation of business.

But when it concerns the Food Trucks we have to speak up. Nobody wants to see what happened in Venice happen again. Thankfully, they got past it.
But it seems that controversy abounds with regards to Friday nights in Granada Hills.
Now it's not surprising that there will be some people who will take exception to this gathering. Local residents who live in and around this quaint area may not want to see their quiet neighborhood give way the throngs of people this gathering attracts. I get that. Anything that draws the press is usually not a good thing.
But that's not always the case. I've been a Valley resident for all of my 50 plus years. I've seen vast amounts of West and North Valley open land give way to urban sprawl.
And as much as people say "Things were so much simpler then" the mind has a tendency to forget the things we didn't like back than and focus on the nostalgic things we did like.
Chatsworth Street in that neighborhood has always been a quaint little street in a quiet neighborhood. But that went away long before the food trucks came along. Granada Hills High School and the 2 huge shopping centers to the west of Zelzah pretty much did that in. What it didn't do was revitalize the area. Instead it pulled shoppers away from the small mom and pop businesses to the east. That area was well on it's way to becoming as depressed as multitudes of strip malls in LA have become since the financial meltdown of the last 10 years.
Then the food trucks happened.
Now there are no vacancies in the shops along this strip of Chatsworth St. The food trucks have actually created demand for retail space here. What other neighborhood is this happening in?
Now of course I'm going to be on the pro food truck side of this debate.
But many have pointed out that the business owners along here might be looking a gift horse in the mouth. This phenomenon brings people to the area. Until the food trucks came I can't remember the last time I was in this area and I live about 3 miles from there.
Now if the trucks are creating a litter problem, I'm sure that they would be glad to police up the area after the doors come down. I've talked to a lot of owners of these trucks. The ones I've met are the nicest people you'd ever want to meet and most are very civic minded.
It's my opinion that instead of fighting with the Business owners of the stores along this strip that they should be working with them to do cross promotions and the like.
I've noticed that the few tines I've been there, that the restaurants and shops that are open are doing good business. And their businesses are being exposed to folks who otherwise wouldn't even know they were there. And this opportunity comes up every week.... for free!
It's my hope that this gathering survives and flourishes so that other jurisdictions see this and follow suit. The food trucks have become a signature of the L.A. landscape. Embrace it is what I say. There are great rewards here.