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Street Vendors Stand Up For Bathroom Rights
By
John Del Signore
Published Feb 24, 2010
Modified Feb 24, 2010
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By
John Del Signore
Published Feb 24, 2010
Modified Feb 24, 2010
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As promised, a mob of disgruntled street food vendors demonstrated outside Health Department headquarters downtown yesterday. The group believes that the DOH has started to crack down on vendors who step away from their carts to relieve themselves; last week a roasted peanut vendor in Lower Manhattan had his permit confiscated after he stepped away from his stand for a quick comfort break. At yesterday's protest, Shirajul Islam explained to the Post, "When I left my cart, I wasn't feeling too well. Then my doctor called me and said I have to have an operation to fix the problem."
Health Department officials say food vendors can leave their carts for 15 minutes, but a licensed vendor has to guard it for them. And one unidentified official clams Islam was away for a half hour. "We want them to go to the bathroom and wash their hands over the course of the day," said Dan Cass, an acting deputy health commissioner. "Our job is to ensure that the food sold by vendors and restaurant owners and others is safe."
But Sean Basinski, who works with the Urban Justice Center's Street Vendor Project, thinks the DOH is being overzealous and inconsiderate of vendors' human necessities: "As far as we know, there has never been a case of a vendor's food being contaminated while they've left to go to the toilet. I'm sure if some bad person wanted to poison the people of New York City, there'd be easier ways to do it, like going to a salad bar." Disgusting, and true!
Tagged
bathroom
protest
street food
vendor
John Del Signore
Originally from the Albany area, John Del Signore has called NYC home since 1995. In addition to his thousands of meticulously-crafted bespoke blog posts for Gothamist, his writing has also been published in The Awl, Deadspin, The Nervous Breakdown, and performed at The Brick Theater in Brooklyn.
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Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
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