Already home to one semi-permanent cart, plans to convert the used car lot on the northeast corner of Valencia and Ceasar Chavez into the “Valencia Food Truck Park” have been drafted and submitted to planning for review.
At the crossroads of the Valencia Street and Cesar Chavez bike corridors, the proposed park would accommodate up to seven (7) trucks at a time, with seating, bike racks and a permanent bathroom as well.
In the words of our tipster, “hungry cyclists love food trucks!” And beer (which would be served as well).
“Permanent food truck park” sounds like an oxymoron. But yeah, Portland has defacto permanent food truck/trailer parks all over town.
Some of these locations actively rotate the truck so there are different selections on different days; Having the same seven trucks there all the time doesn’t make lots of sense.
In Portland, the permanent ones are usually shacks/stalls/carts, not so much trucks/trailers.
Cool idea. That barbed wire and fencing is pretty nasty looking so hopefully they can do something to make the space more inviting.
The huge Salvation Army store next door really should be torn down for housing but have not heard any plans yet.
Great use of a eyesore and definitely a valuable add for the area. Here’s hoping that parking lot across the streets gets put to good use some day.
No kidding! Hey Socketsite- anything in the rumormill for that one?
Rather than the fascination with food trucks, I really wish that we could get a version of the southeast Asian food courts. Pick a table, buy your food at a stall and have it delivered to your table.
Hawker markets have been tried a few times in the Bay Area though though the enterprises eventually failed. The two that I visited were ghost towns. Maybe this is caused by a difference between SE Asian and American cultures?
One possibility is that our food truck lots eventually evolve into fixed-stall SE Asian style hawker markets. In fact that’s how the SE Asian hawker markets evolved in the first place. Portable vendor stalls were replaced with permanent ones. Singapore fairly recently (1990s?) forced the temporary stalls into permanent hawker markets for sanitary reasons and the result is vibrant and delicious. Lets hope the same eventually happens here.
Two of my fave hawker markets are in Bangkok’s MBK mega-mall: The Fifth Food Avenue which is spendy by Thai standards but the food is top notch. For cheaper eats just go to the floor above where you buy in to a stack of Monopoly money (vouchers) and can get a full tummy easily for under $3.
I stopped eating at food trucks. The food isn’t good enough
Hmmm quite interesting. Another hipster project taking over, not only the latino neighborhood, but the mexican taco truck concept. Hipsters are such clever individuals.
Are people still blaming “hipsters” for changes to the city? I thought people (including the hipsters) are now blaming the “techies.”
Pretty much anyone with a beard under 35.
Puh-lease, the food truck thing started years ago, primarily in L.A., long before most of today’s hipsters could even grow facial hair. And most of the early food truck folks gladly give credit to Mexican taco trucks – as well as construction-site food trucks and movie industry food trucks – as providing inspiration for what came later.
Sierrajeff is right. In fact at LAX they have a whole “shrine” to the early days of L.A. food trucks in the American Airlines terminal with pictures of the first trucks from the 80s/90s and various hip L.A. food truck companies now have faux truck outposts in the terminal, all near the airport version of Campanile, where I always get a bite while waiting for my flight to Asia.
Unforced, most food trucks are overpriced for want you get…small portions for $12. Kinda sucks. A few I like, but it’s a hassle getting to them. That soma truck park seems to be doing okay though, so I wonder if this one will succeed.
of course there’s the inevitable passer by in a car -will they cause traffic problems? will they double park? will they park in the neighborhoods and walk? who’s taking that into consideration? will there be public comment?
It will be a challenging place to do this. Right now there’s not much foot traffic between the Tiffany Avenue connection and Valencia/25th due to the “moat-like” atmosphere created by St Luke, the Salvation Army, the mechanic / parking lot.
The CC beautification is a big plus, as well as the infill that happened where the day laborers were being picked up at Mission. But this location will need more than this to become a destination.
i walk this stretch through Tiffany and Valencia at least a 1/2 dozen times a week. during commuter hours and into the early evening it is quite BUSY – though i’ll admit that many walkers turn right on Valencia and then left on Mission.
if by “moat-like” you are referring to an empty bunker-like feel then you are right in that nothing on this stretch is friendly or a destination. the Salvation Army in particular reads like a really armory, closed off, guarded, and uninviting (and the vast Job Training Center on Mission feels underused). if you mean dank or dirty, you really need to walk more. while St Luke can be Bosch-like at times AND i feel that sidewalk sleepers have vastly increased as people have been displaced by midMarket development (similar to the rise in Duboce), this street is sunny and warm and wide and doesn’t have a lot of auto traffic. it does not smell like parts of SOMA and the Tenderloin. i could imagine it closed to cars completely will little disruption and turned into a real pedestrian / bike destination with market, shops, and eateries. i expect it will instead become high priced condos eventually as it is walking distance to both BART and tech bus stops.
the existing taco stand does decent business only 2 blocks from La Tacqueria and the weekend jazz band on the sidewalk always makes me smile. the coffee shop 2 blocks away on Mission has the nicest barista in SF and a good cup of coffee.
i don’t see this as a challenging location or with less customer traffic then the currently successful foodtruck park under Division. st luke’s remodel will hinder a pleasant outdoor experience but will also bring in hungry mouths. hospital workers like to get out of the hospital on breaks but rarely have options.
when 4 barrel went in their stretch of Valencia was also uninviting but on the bike path. now look at it.
and what are the risks to the owner? a few shipping container buildings for bathroom and a bar and picnic tables and hardy landscaping. rent just needs to exceed costs and what the current detailing shop pays (which i will miss as they do great work). the food truck tenants will bear the real risk and those that succeed will pay up.
Yes, my definition of moat was your first quote. Empty and bunker-like. I don’t find this area particularly dirty. One day the huge underused opposite lot will be built up. This will change everything and create a much needed connection.
Can that lot really support 7 trucks ?
The lots really small so not like it has a great deal of space for tables, nor does it have a lot of nearby pedestrian traffic , or easy parking ,
Unless the trucks are going low scale with affordable pricing its hard for me to imagine more then 4 – 5 trucks , again that would be if they do good pricing in that spot to attract customers
no easy parking? lol. there are people who still drive and park their own cars these days?
Yup! The vast majority of San Franciscans use a car to get around, isn’t that just criminal? The idea that so many can get around so fast without huffing and puffing like the 3.7% that use a bike must make some furious. BTW- why not make these food trucks bike carts instead? If the goal is to turn the city into some bikers paradise, don’t forget to get rid of all the trucks too. Even the most anti-car pro-bike poster on this site has admitted his family owns an automobile. The horror and shame!
It’s funny and true – there’s an ice cream truck that sits in GG Park all weekend, belching diesel exhaust to run its generator all day long, Saturday and Sunday, while all the yuppie parents and tourists line up for their “organic” (don’t mind the polyaromatic hydrocarbons you’re breathing in!) ice cream. Somehow this is OK in the eyes of the hip and savvy, but wanting to use a much-more-efficient car for every day use is not OK.
17% use a bike every week. I have corrected you numerous times on this, why don’t you get it right?
Also LOL at the “huffing-and-puffing” hyperbole. Valencia is very easy cycling.
I haven’t been near a food truck in over a year. But I hear they’re ‘breaking news’ down in Orange County.
Considering that they pretty much started in L.A., your snark is misplaced.
I’m glad that I’m within one block of the best food truck in the Mission, El Gallo Giro.
SHHHHHH!!!
Nothing against food trucks, but now that tax payers have poured untold millions into fixing up these “corridors” then how about letting someone build something that adds real permanent value to the neighborhood? I don’t for a second buy the argument that there isn’t any capital looking for this opportunity.
Why don’t you throw together a proposal then? I don’t think that odd shaped lot is going to be easy to do much with. What do the architects and developers think? Could housing go here?