Drawing on interviews with taco truck workers and his own skills as a geographer, Robert Lemon illuminates new truths about foodways, community, and the unexpected places where ethnicity, class, and culture meet. Lemon focuses on the San Francisco Bay Area, Sacramento, and Columbus, Ohio, to show how the arrival of taco trucks challenge preconceived ideas of urban planning even as cities use them to reinvent whole neighborhoods. As Lemon charts the relationships between food practices and city spaces, he uncovers the many ways residents and politicians alike contest, celebrate, and influence not only where your favorite truck parks, but what's on the menu.
| Cover Title Copyright Dedication Contents Foreword Acknowledgments Introduction CHAPTER 1: REMAKING OAKLAND'S STREETS CHAPTER 2: FORMALIZING SAN FRANCISCO'S INFORMAL STREET FOOD VENDORS CHAPTER 3: MAKING SACRAMENTO INTO AN EDIBLE CITY CHAPTER 4: LANDSCAPE, LABOR, AND THE LONCHERA CHAPTER 5: COMMUNITY CONFLICT AND CUISINE IN COLUMBUS CHAPTER 6: COOKING UP MULTICULTURALISM CHAPTER 7: FOOD, FEAR, AND DREAMS Conclusion Notes References index | John Brinckerhoff Jackson Prize, American Association of Geographers, 2020 — American Association of Geographers|Robert Lemon is an urban and social researcher in the Department of Geography and the Environment at the University of Texas Austin, and an urban and social researcher and documentary filmmaker. His films include Transfusión.