Art Walk's Drunken Masses And Out-of-Control Partiers Can be Blamed on ... Food Trucks?

Behave.

In this edition of WTF, City Hall? we have the Downtown Art Walk Task Force, started by council members Jose Huizar and Jan Perry in response to the car-accident death of a 2-month-old boy during last month's crowded Art Walk.

While anyone within smelling distance of the event knows that it has become Spring Break on Spring Street, the real culprit, according to the Task Force:

Food Trucks.

That's right, it's their fault that Art Walk has become a pub crawl where, as gallery owner Victor Wilde told us, the event "has very little to do with art."

(We're being sarcastic here, obviously: Seems to us food trucks only joined the party after Art Walk had grown into a massive street fest).

Anyway, here's the deal starting with tomorrow night's Art Walk, according to a joint statement from Huizar and Perry:

Starting this month, the City Fire Department and County Health Department will no longer issue any permits for vending between 3rd and 7th street and Spring and Main, areas identified to be overly congested by art walk activities. Instead, both agencies will work with interested vendors to expedite permits for tomorrow's art walk in areas outside this zone, with the hopes of supporting the growth of the event outside the four-block area.

The statement indicates the task force will be ongoing and that more restrictions could come.

It's interesting to see how a committee can get these things done so quickly, without the vote of the full council, when it takes the city years to accomplish other things (marijuana dispensary controls, anyone?), often with bureaucracy being blamed.

Makes you go hmm.

Happy walking.

[@dennisjromero/djromero@laweekly.com]