THE BALLOON MAN

Horrible Brooklyn Heights Snobs Rant Against Hot Dog Vendor

 

A hot dog vendor serving "disgusting food" to "disgusting people"
By Ben Yakas in Food
from: gothamist.com
June 24, 2012
Unless you've been listening to too much Insane Clown Posse, we can't really see what problem anyone would have with hot dogs. And as long as they're not fighting each other over turf, we don't see why anyone would have a problem with a hot dog vendor. And yet, Brooklyn Heights residents refused to allow one vendor to sling dogs on Montague Street—and they took to Brooklyn Heights Blog to complain: "Disgusting food, served by disgusting people to disgusting people," said Heights Guy.
The vendor set up on Montague Street near the promenade at 10:30 a.m. last Saturday—and angry locals flooded the cops with calls. By that afternoon, an officer had given him a ticket and made him leave. “He was a nice young man trying to make a living, but in this neighborhood everything is a protest," one resident who watched it unfold told the Post. “He said something like, ‘Well, this is life.’ He packed up his belongings and left.”
You can get an idea of why they shooed him away in their rantings on the blog: "This is a lot of bull I have worked very hard to be able to afford to live on Montague Terrace and i do not need a hot dog vendor out side my window so he can make a few bucks," wrote someone named Gerry. "When and if this slob comes back I wil have him ejected - again by the NYPD he has no legal permit and he never will." Willow St. Neighbor agreed: "What next? A big top? Circus animals? Clowns? Cotton Candy?...Is there no peace for neighborhood residents who work long, hard hours?" Because no one in any other part of the city living where hot dog vendors park could POSSIBLY work long, hard hours as well.
PromGirl argued: "Ours is a quiet residential neighborhood. This is not the place to live for people looking for 'street life. Residential streets are not zoned for commerce." But not everyone was slinging vitriol—others such as Mr. Crusty defended the vendor, and castigated the complainers for their "snobbish attack:"
The length of Montague street is a commercial street as well and the main means of access to the Promenade which belongs to everyone, residents and non residents alike despite what some on here might believe. And yes living in NY might mean that you paid several million dollars for your home and have to put up with a food cart a block away. Deal with it. Or not. No one is forced to live anywhere. We all make our choices. You can not make BH some private enclave divorced from city life.
Chuck Taylor, who wrote the initial post welcoming the vendor to the neighborhood, also came to his defense: “People need to step back and realize nobody owns a New York City neighborhood,” Taylor told the Post. “It is to be shared by all who call it home and all who visit. If something so minuscule as a hot dog vendor raises the ire of the neighborhood, that’s what I’d call snobbery.”