ABSTRACT
This chapter looks at the role local government law played in the so-called “sriracha-apocalypse.” It takes the methodological view that there were two important places in the sriracha conflict. One was Huy Fong’s new plant in a converted mining pit in Irwindale. Second was Irwindale as a small city in Greater Los Angeles cloaked with city powers after incorporation in 1957. The chapter identifies a series of legal powers influential in the hot sauce conflict. It employs analytical frameworks from the Los Angeles School of Urbanism (LA School). Urban law delineates how city and regional governments determine their jurisdiction, and how private interests protect their economic investments in court and in public institutions at local, county, or state levels. In conclusion, an LA School view of the sriracha-apocalypse points to urban law’s ambivalent duality, when addressing conflicts between cities and outside businesses.
