The revised law, to take effect May 15, allows mobile eateries to stay put for an hour. But if they fail to move after that they can be slapped with a criminal misdemeanor and face a fine of up to $1,000 or even six months in jail.
Sonderleiter, 28, said he was offended: "It just struck me as so unfair and so ridiculous and so prohibitive and so devastating to something that I love."
Bringing up the website, www.saveourtacotrucks.org, "was a spur-of-the-moment idea." He tends the site after his day job teaching computer skills to middle and high school students in West Los Angeles.
"We're totally new at this," said Rutherford, 27, who also is a teacher. "I think a lot of this -- we're sort of learning as we go."
On the popular networking site Facebook, taco lover Selvans, a NASA employee, created a group and urged members to send letters of protest to their supervisors. At last count, more than 500 have joined the effort and chimed in.
Writes 23-year-old Santa Monica resident Devon Randall: "Who would want to hurt a poor, defenseless taco truck?"
Alberto Pineda, 20, of Commerce adds: "My favorite taco place is a stand in east L.A., now what am I going to eat?"
Selvans, however, fears that most who have joined his group will do little to reach out to supervisors "who probably aren't spending much time on Facebook."
"In which case, having 500 members doesn't necessarily mean much," he said.
But the protests continue.
"What is the endgame in this?" Rutherford asked. "Is it we go on a hunger strike? At what point do we call it a day? I don't know. Steam is still building."
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jp.renaud@latimes.com
