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Will Food Vendors Be Kicked Out Of Columbus Circle, Too?
By
Jamie Feldmar
Published Oct 10, 2011
Modified Oct 10, 2011
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By
Jamie Feldmar
Published Oct 10, 2011
Modified Oct 10, 2011
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The latest group to complain about mobile food vendors are none other than cabbies, who claim that trucks and carts are crowding taxi stands around Columbus Circle, costing them precious fares from the hordes of shoppers burdened with bags from Stuart Weitzman. And DNAinfo reports that City Councilwoman Gale Brewer is taking up their cause.
"Taxi drivers have been complaining to me because they can’t pick up passengers, then they double park," Brewer said. "There aren't a lot of safe places in that very congested location. It gets dangerous." Brewer, who previously proposed GPS tracking for food trucks, is now introducing legislation to keep the vendors away from the Circle, a move that she "expects City Council to approve easily." We have reached out to Brewer's office for more details of her plan but haven not heard back.
Cabbies are the latest in a long string of food vendor opponents in recent months: Park Slope restaurant owners think vendors are dirty cheapskates, little old Upper West Side ladies find them sickening, and Midtown cops are kicking out trucks left and right. If Brewer's latest anti-food truck measure does go through, however, at least the displaced vendors might be able to take some refuge in the newly opened food truck sanctuary in Long Island City, though Columbus Circlers probably won't be able to get to Queens and back for lunch.
Tagged
cabbies
columbus circle
crackdown
food cart
food truck
gale brewer
taxi
Jamie Feldmar
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