Frank Vendor to Evicted Foe: You Can Stand Under My Umbrella

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Photo taken by Santi-Jose on flickr
Swooping in like a regular Mister Monopoly riding in on his hot dog cart (or was it a wheelbarrow?), vendor Dan Rossi has come to the rescue of fellow frank seller Pasang Sherpa after Sherpa was evicted from his high-priced spot outside the Met. Yesterday news broke that Sherpa was $300,000 behind on the $600K+ in annual rent he was supposed to be paying the city to sling dogs outside the Upper East Side museum. That prompted Rossi, who is able to set up his stand without paying rent due to an exception for veterans like him, to invite Sherpa to join his edible empire. When asked about his former rival turned subordinate, the winner of the wiener wars told the News, "He's gonna work for me now. Nobody's gonna touch him now without talking to me...The guy was crying. They pushed him out." Rossi also called for the Parks Department to crack down on unlicensed, "black market" vendors nearby saying, "I sell water for $2 and the others sell it for $1. If I charged $10 a hot dog maybe I could compete."

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Comments (4) [rss]

Wow, so typically vendors pay 600K in rent a year and still make a profit, and Rossi doesn't have to pay a penny in rent? Rossi must be raking it in.

Well, he bid that much for a spot in front of the Met.

However, it seems pretty ridiculous that veteran status gets Rossi a spot rent-free in the same area. I hold firm that service to our country should afford privileges to those who would step up, but I would think that would get him breaks on things like business expenses - not outright exception from them.

finally some humanity in the city - to bad the city govt cant be expected to show any

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