A Reversal of Fortune in A Virtual World

In an amazing reversal of fortune, staunch defenders of the infamous Sunland Tujunga debacle: "Food Truck Night" (FTN)  have completely reversed their stand and removed their support of the hotly debated weekly event to join the side calling for the strong control of, or complete dismissal of, the event. Prominent community activists who previously attended every FTN and deliberately stood in view of passing traffic to show their patronage and support of FTN are now calling for "picket signs" and an organised effort against the Sunland Tujunga Chamber of Commerce who created Food Truck Night.

Recently 'talks' between two rival groups: one for the CofC and support of the Food Truck Night and the other for the merchants (brick and mortar stores) to contest the FTN, faced each other in a 'standoff' and ended the meeting in conflict and disagreement. The primary battle ground for this controversy exists in the virtual world as Facebook pages are created by the score to discuss talking points primarily with those of like mind. Facebook members of opposing views are either denied membership in the page and prevented from posting their views or are challenged by the majority in packdog behavior until every view but the one the page is devoted too is silenced. Excellent ideas for solution to the conflict are shredded without consideration.

The Meeting of Twelve as the talks between six merchants and six Chamber of Commerce members is popularly called, was mediated by a professional assigned to guide the talks by Councilman Alarcon. No record of the talks has been produced so any reports from participants is suspect as none agree on what was discussed, concluded, or carried over for further discussion. In fact the talks have been so hotly debated on Facebook by both sides that further talks may not be possible. Any invitation by the Chamber to 'discuss this face to face' (in the real world) is dismissed with suspicion by Facebookers who want an answer on the medium they have become accustomed too.

In truth, there is a third "member" of this controversy who is hammering at the virtual door of the meetings for admission. The General Public has not been represented in any formal discussion and is the driving force behind the social media use of multiple Facebook pages as they find a marginal way to air their views. More than that however, is the final straw in this huge pile of very real controversy: every Wednesday night hundreds of happy customers greet the food trucks with enthusiasm and buy the wares offered there; they have no idea what a brou-ha-ha this is. They do not participate on little-known Facebook pages; they consume goods in a real world and vote with their attendance. Their innocent delight is the one element of honest opinion expressed without rancor or agenda. They will be the ones who suffer the consequences of decisions made in ether.

Food Trucks and Fallacies

Human beings are 'fallible: liable to make mistakes or be deceived; liable to be erroneous or inaccurate' (Websters). What makes them so much better than imperfection, however, is their ability to rise above their situation and remedy it.

When the Food Trucks arrived I was enthused. It was something new and not just one new choice but 30 trucks at once. Wow. I attended every Wednesday night at first, in order to try several 'gourmet' foods. I had fun. I'd never eaten from food trucks before. I also did not understand why some people wanted to lock arms with me and "be seen at Food Truck Night", in my company. Apparently they thought I represented something.

The Facebook pages lit up in a new Sunland Tujunga controversy. Heading up that discussion is Tomi Lyn Bowling. Its not that Tomi means harm, she does what she deems best for others without consulting them. She is in a position of power when she does this and her views carry weight. She feels she always 'has the good of the community in her heart' while she affects change. When she is questioned she is hurt and the change she championed becomes secondary to her need for validation. Her fans surround her posts with affirmations and the true topic of discussion is lost.

Writers such as myself and Joe Barrett, will drop everything in such a situation as community controversy and become reporters. However, while informing readers all about it, we become part of the story as well. Our voices add weight to differing 'sides'. (Others such as Doc DeMulle, and Joseph Mailander from Los Feliz, deliberately report the side they favor.)

Other vocal community members like Robin Meares, Tom Borquez, Sharon Ratz and Joseph Sheppard weigh in and state their views. As vitally important as it is to hear that brick and mortar stores are determinedly opposing Food Truck Night (and 'why' they are doing so) their reasons are lost amid the sounds of battle. Tom is inspired to write a treatise on the secret meetings which eclipses Tomi's 'whole story'. A new round of controversy wraps itself around what they (and reporters) write, instead of the issue.

Sonia Tatulian, the Chamber President comes out fighting for ground on issues not even on the table for discussion. Personal insults become all that is exchanged and quiet excellent ideas from stakeholders like Cecile Vargo and Abby Diamond are lost like a flashlight in a forest fire.

What happens in this community is every issue is a stage for key players to fight over in order to be important in their own way. Its time for all the usual people to step away from the controversy and let others whose names are totally unknown to the Facebook crowd, take over. Let the quiet merchants who haven't been heard, the CoC members who have no self interest, the community members who have never dared voice an opinion... step up to the plate and take the reins. There are quiet people out there with an opinion... these are your new Unknown Leaders.

The Least Among Us: The Story of the Yucca Moth

The sun-baked soil, dusty shrubs of buckwheat and towering stands of yucca in Big Tujunga Canyon have a fragrance all their own. The sound of insects swells and fades; swells and fades... A memory of water lines the dry riverbeds with bits of forgotten froth and algae dried into streaks on marbled granite walls. There is no such thing as silence here where hawks scream inquiry and bees sound like small farming implements: gathering the harvest. 

Photos of Yucca whipplei (and Eva Lund) in Big Tujunga Canyon by Debra McConville


Here in this world just outside the polluted and impersonal city limits, a miracle takes place, a relationship forged in perpetuity ensures the perfect survival of two species and the pleasure of all who appreciate the miraculous.

Standing upright in confident spears, the yucca, or “Our Lord’s Candle” balances the native California landscape of soft mounding shrubs of buckwheat, manzanitas, coyote bush and sage with its vertical 10’ blooms rising from striking rounds of spiked foliage. This plant species has a story to tell about survival and perfect planning. Its presence in this chaparral is no accident; nature abhors such things so every detail of this wild land is deliberate, and none is more so than that of the yucca.

This stately plant owes its entire existence to one small inconspicuous insect: the yucca moth. And the moth in turn would perish forever without the relationship it has forged with the yucca. In the absence of either one of these species, the other would quickly become extinct.

This small white moth is unique in the insect world: her mouth has a pair of spiny tentacles and her egg-laying tube is a sharp spike. One evening in early summer the moths emerge from their cocoons and mate just as the yucca begins to bloom. When the female is ready to deposit her eggs she does the most remarkable thing: this tiny moth enters flower after flower of the majestic yucca and gathers pollen from each in her tentacles. She rolls this pollen into a ball bigger than her head. Then she flies to another flower, inserts her sharp egg-laying tube into the flower’s ovary at the base of the pistil and lays just three eggs. She climbs the pistil and inserts the ball of pollen, rubbing it into the pistil and pollinates the yucca flower. The pollen is neither food for herself or her eggs, this action only benefits the yucca.

Once the flower's ovary is fertilized it swells with hundreds of seeds. The yucca moths' young eat just a few seeds which is why so few are laid in each bloom. Then each little larvae bores a hole in the flower pod, emerges and drops slowly to the ground on a silken thread. It pupates in the ground at the base of the Yucca plant over the winter and leaves its cocoon the following year to start the cycle over again.

In her remarkable book “The Clover and the Bee” Anne Ophelia Dowden writes, “This little moth directly arranges the fertilization necessary to produce seeds her offspring need to eat. In the whole field of pollination it is the only case where an insect ‘deliberately’ fertilizes a flower for the good of the plant and the future benefit of babies she will never see, and is not an accidental part of food gathering.” The yucca moth never eats during her short lifespan. Dowden continues, “No one knows what started such a habit or how the moth’s curious body developed. But the partnership must be very old, since species of yucca have evolved and each has a species of Tegeticula moth that evolved with it. The yucca depends entirely on its little moth.”

This year in the canyon, plant rustlers chopped hundreds of blooming yucca ‘trees’ down and stole them. I believe they were gathering the fertilized seed. The real crime is they stole the yucca moth larvae before they could complete their generous cycle. There will be fewer yuccas next year not only because these plant thieves stole thousands of seeds but because they destroyed so many of the yucca’s only pollinator.

Nature is in perfect balance. When man disrupts it, even in a 'small' way: the balance is upset in ever expanding measures. The loss of a small insect and the plant whose life it ensures can change a whole landscape and the habitat of hundreds of species. Ecology is an exact science whose members (including man) occupy space and coexist in perfect union.

It amazes me that a tiny little life like the yucca moth can think ahead to a future she will never see, yet human beings cannot.

Brick & Mortar Stores Air Their Views

Food Truck Night (FTN) in the “small” town of Sunland has taken on an amazing number of opponents and proponents since its unheralded start at the behest of the Sunland Tujunga Chamber of Commerce a few months ago; Facebook pages by the score, blog posts, and news agencies large and small: report every nuance of its daily activity.

Most surprising in their determined stand are the opponents to FTN. Opponents are a quiet and stubbornly persuasive lot (consisting of brick and mortar store owners and their followers) and their message is being heard. They will not ‘yield the floor’! Councilman Alarcon has again arranged a meeting between six Brick and Mortar store owners (who object to FTN) and six members of the Sunland Tujunga Chamber of Commerce (who organized the event and support it).

This meeting, held a couple of nights ago afforded representatives from “both sides” of the argument to hear and be heard by those expected to carry the message of the meeting back to their side, and to the community. The community of Sunland Tujunga is unrepresented in these meetings and is the only group held captive to decisions affecting them without a voice in the matter apart from Facebook.

One of the most respected members of the brick and mortar stores told Brock Baj’er that the primary negotiation points are the location for the food trucks and the number of times a month they appear. Surprisingly, the complete discontinuation of the food trucks is not an issue! This contradicts the many heated arguments on community Facebook pages which (not surprisingly, since they have no representative to inform them) are unaware that argument is no longer discussed as a main point.

Many merchants including my source have conceded the influx of customers to FTN is making more residents and outsiders aware of the community and the businesses that are always here, not just on Food Truck Nights. They appreciate this marketing potential but, “every week, every week, every week… is just too much: too much traffic, too much stress, too much loss of revenue,” this restaurant owner explains. “Customers spend their dollars at food trucks every Wednesday, I loose customers Tuesdays and Thursdays too because they spent their money at FTN on Wednesdays. The whole week, every week, my business is affected.”

My source reports: the likely outcome of these meetings will be a reduction in the number of times a month the food trucks are allowed to sell in ST and the favored location being discussed is Sunland Park, not Foothill Blvd. This would reportedly satisfy many members of both sides and community response remains to be heard.