BREAKING: Cops Seize Two Carts on 43rd… El Rey Del Sabor is Next
Photo of 43rd btw. 6+B’way Taken on Monday
Whoa… this just in courtesy of EJVallejo: “Looks like cops are confiscating one or both of carts involved in Vendor Fight on 43rd & 6th.” “All carts removed including hot dog lady. Cops said they were breaking zoning & ordinance laws.” Just spoke to Olivia from the El Rey del Sabor cart, and she confirmed that the cops came and started rounding up the carts on 43rd. The hot dog halal cart (run by the Greek lady from the video) and the halal cart $1 hot dog cart were both loaded onto a truck by police and taken away. They were planning on taking the El Rey del Sabor cart as well, but it wouldn’t fit on the truck- so they told her to move the cart by the time they came back, or they would seize her cart as well.
There’s no question that the building wants all the carts gone. After the “plantergate” episode, the building took matters into their own hands, installing a new group of planters. And yesterday, a representative from the building told El Rey del Sabor that they planned on planting a tree where their cart was currently parked (basically telling them they weren’t wanted.) Not sure if the building is responsible, but ERdS also said the cops came last week to say that the carts on the block were all parking illegally because of the “No Stopping” sign. The vendors argued that those signs don’t apply to carts, only trucks- but clearly that didn’t hold water. They were told today their carts were being seized because last week they were told to move, and they didn’t.
More on this as it comes in… but one thing is for sure- no Mexican food from the 43rd Street El Rey del Sabor cart today.
Related:
Vendor Fight Over 6th Ave. Spot Caught on Video
The Latest Weapon in the Vendor Wars is… Sidewalk Planters!?
“Plantergate” Continues As Building Reinstalls Planters on 43rd St.
Posted by Zach Brooks at 1:25 pm, September 16th, 2009 under El Rey Del Sabor, Street Vendor Issues.
21 Comments | RSS comments feed for this post
21 Comments
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can we get some mexican over in north west midtown? i was super excited when schnitzel truck finally came by on monday (52nd b/w 6 + 7) but maybe, just maybe, some mexican too? thx!
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I thought the “No Stopping” signs only apply to vehicles IN THE STREET. The carts are on the SIDEWALK. Makes no sense. Perhaps the Street Vendor Project could chime in here–if sidewalk vendors have to adhere to street parking regulations, it will get ugly.
On the bright side, I think the cops will have a nice alternative to their usual donuts and coffee today!
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ah… a case of no one getting their cake and no one eating anything too.
you know this makes me think that carts can pay off the buildings.
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The Street Vendor Project needs some sort of legal judgment on the books. This is insane. I’m not a litigator by trade (I do transactional work) but I do smell class action here… The cops are f’ing morons, and the city is taking no responsibility here, showing once again how our govn’t fails always and often…..
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Looks like cops are correct.
http://Www.nydmv.state.ny.us/dmanual/chapter07-manual.htm
“no stopping is allowed… on a sidewalk or crosswalk.”
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If the hotdog lady wasn’t such a witch everyone would still be making money.
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i mean honestly, if you have a bunch of kids, and they all have balloons, and they start hitting eachother with them, then they start hitting other people with them while trying to hit eachother, wouldnt you take the balloon away?
they both had the sidewalk, then they started fighting over the sidewalk, now no one has the sidewalk… its all a lesson that they should have learned as kid… play nice or no one gets to play at all
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I think there needs to be more vendors willingto record their troubling ordeals like ive seen one time before that resulted in a vendor winning his case.
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Can I have a balloon?
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See, living in a free country i can say”Bloomberg will die for this”.
Fuck all the short arsed fuckwit can do about it, either.
Bloomberg i mean, not Zachova.
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Yeah. this is what happens when you don’t learn to share… HOT DOG LADY.
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As this happens more and carts start moving out of midtown (steak truck), we’ll come to remember the last few months as the golden ages of midtown carting.
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Sad consequence of much ado. But there is at least a little justice in that the ERdS kind of got away unscathed where as the hot dog lady and the halal cart were ‘carted away.’ In the end, we all lose. Just like Affliction.
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as long as you dont stand on someone elses balloon and say “you cant play here” then yes, you can steve
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what Steve said! (About the El Rey AND the balloon)
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It was the Halal guys, not the old Hot Dog Lady that caused the fuss. Hot Dog lady has been there for years right on the corner — $1 hot dog & sausages and soda is all she sells — and she usually throws in some hard candy if you buy 2. The halal guys are obnoxious, they moved right next to her and then put up a big sign saying $1 hot dogs and as far as I can tell she never said a peep. What people are talking about is the NEW hot dog & halal lady who is a nasty piece of work. Their product wasn’t half bad but their cart always looked pretty skeevy to me. I believe they are the ones that made trouble with the Mexicans, moved the planters around etc. In the video you can see it is the fat halal lady making all the trouble and the building security guy right in the middle. I think the building just had enough of all the hassle. One issue may be that the sidewalk there is narrower than most other sidewalks with food carts. It was kind of tough getting by, and because of the narrowness they may have been on the buildings right of way which often extends onto the sidewalk.
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Viktor–good thing you’re not a lawyer. You can’t take isolated quotes (e.g., from regulations) out of context. What you quoted was part of a set of *general* rules regarding parking/standing/stopping for MOTOR VEHICLES. Not for stationary carts. Your out-of-context conclusion would make EVERY SINGLE SIDEWALK CART illegal in the city.
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I am not a lawyer and that is a good thing.
The cops can justify that the carts are part of car. But I can see how it can be interpreted in many ways. I guess it depends on how the judge will rule. -
Who ever got hurt from a balloon?
Hindenburg notwithstanding.
come back to Herald Square. the cops are nice down here.