Allan Mansoor Blames Taco Trucks for His Descent into Anti-Immigrant Politics, but is He Telling the Truth?

Mansoor: No tacos at El Granjenal for him...

​Today's profile in the Daily Pilot on Costa Mesa Mayor Allan Mansoor reads like an Aurora Snow job, one meant to lube up voters in the 68th Assembly District to take him in (where's the bit about Mansoor's gay bashing? His connections to certified hate groups? His costing the city hundreds of thousands of dollars in taxpayer money to pursue personal vendettas?). But the story starts off with a fascinating view into the man's mind: he tells reporter Mike Reicher that what motivated him into entering politics was too many taco trucks entering his Costa Mesa neighborhood and blaring "La Cucaracha."

"When the taco truck blaring 'La Cucaracha' would roll down his street, Allan Mansoor thought less about lunch and more about the song's title, 'The Cockroach," Reicher wrote. "He felt the so-called 'roach coaches' were proliferating and changing the character of his once-peaceful neighborhood.

How nice of Mansoor to belittle businesses that add to the city coffers! Besides, Mansoor is at best a bigot and at worst, a liar.
Before the luxe-lonchera craze, Costa Mesa did not have a lonchera scene that wasn't tied to industrial parks. If Mansoor did indeed hear those trucks, it's because they were going to the businesses on the city's Westside--those businesses that bring so much tax revenue into the city that Mansoor's intellectual godfather, H. Millard, want eradicated--and not the residential neighborhoods. Only SanTana and Huntington Beach (and only at Tacos El Chavito), even in these days of the Reconquista, feature taco trucks that venture where wabs live instead of merely work. Trust me on this one: as someone who has followed them for nearly a decade, they're not going into Costa Mesa. What does go into those neighborhoods are produce trucks, and some might play the tune--but those aren't taco trucks, let alone "roach coaches."

Also? Those taco trucks that do blare "La Cucaracha" are the kinds that only work for lunch. One passes by the Weekly's Costa Mesa world headquarters every morning. If such trucks were going into residential neighborhoods, they'd merely park and have no need to announce their arrival to the world. The residents would've already expected them.

Final point? Mansoor also had a problem with the incessant ringing of the paletero. Where were his complaints about the ice-cream trucks of yours? If anything, the gentle bells of the paletero are far quieter than the tinny songs blared by the ice-cream trucks. Plain and simple, folks: Mansoor is a bigot, an idiot, and knows nothing about food--and betcha he gets elected by a landslide in November. Ah, Orange County...