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Plight Of The Food Truck: Cops Drive Mobile Vendors From Midtown
By
Jamie Feldmar
Published Jun 29, 2011
Modified Jun 29, 2011
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By
Jamie Feldmar
Published Jun 29, 2011
Modified Jun 29, 2011
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It started with oatmeal cookies. Then it was dumplings, and kimchi tacos, and waffles. Those are just a few of the items being sold out of food trucks that cops have kicked out of Midtown in the past week as part of a new crackdown on mobile food vendors.
Treats Truck on West 45th St was the first to go, writing, "The police have let us know that they no longer want food trucks in the Midtown area." Today, the Times writes that the Comme Ci, Comme Ca Truck on 38th St, the Desi Truck on 50th St, Eddie's Pizza Truck, The Kimchi Taco Truck, and the Wafels & Dingels Truck, all on 52nd St, and a "ragtag fleet of generic soft ice cream trucks in the area" have all been kicked out of their customary spots. “I spent years building up customers in those locations, and we’re suddenly cut off from them,” said Treats Truck owner Kim Ima.
The crackdown comes after a May 24 ruling to reinforce a '50s-era Transportation Department regulation stating that no “vendor, hawker or huckster shall park a vehicle at a metered parking space” to offer “merchandise for sale from the vehicle.” But the vendors aren't so sure—some think the police are reacting to complaints from local restaurants about the competition (it's happened before).
Midtown lunchers are none too pleased with the sudden absence of dessert and dumplings-on-wheels. “When I walked out of the office and the Treats Truck wasn’t there, I got angry,” said Mitchell Donk, a tax accountant who's been so devoted to Ima's truck for the past four years that he actually has a cookie named after him—the highest honor any Midtown office drone could possibly dream of. Food truck-hating coppers: please don't ruin this man's life work.
Tagged
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food trucks
midtown
nypd
street food
treats truck
Jamie Feldmar
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