BID Head Calls Vendors With Odd-Smelling Food “Terrible Citizens”

The 34th Street Partnership takes on food carts and takes sides, coming out against “smelly” carts and in favor of upscale mobile vendors that sell stuff like Belgian waffles:

“The problem is really simple: the food vendors, with about five exceptions, are the ugliest collection of miserable-looking vehicles we’ve ever seen,” said Dan Biederman, who heads up both the Partnership and the Bryant Park Corporation.

“The vendors are almost exclusively terrible citizens, they litter with impunity and are generally rude to anyone who asks them to clean up.”

The campaign is still in its early stages, but the partnership has reached out to city officials, asking them to reduce the amount of street vendors in Midtown by taking away licenses and making sure that they’re in better locations.

Biederman said the problem has gotten particularly bad since many vendors started putting flashing signs on their carts. Food vendors often create excess smoke and odd smells, the organization said, and they leave their trash piled up on street corners.

The group also wants the remaining vendors to beautify their carts, using the few carts it finds attractive — including popular vendor Wafels and Dinges and the Fruit-n-Juice cart that’s typically around West 35th Street and Broadway — as a template.

The “terrible citizens” line is particularly unfortunate when read with the accompanying photo of a halal cart . . .