Mayor Mike Unhappy With Sausage Fest Of Vets At The Met

2009_08_bloomberghotdog.jpg Since Mayor Bloomberg was robbed of his chance to engage in Weiner Wars this election year, he's settling for the next best thing—the Wiener Wars! Yesterday on his weekly radio show, Bloomberg was asked about the recent crackdown of illegal vendors outside the Met. Since it was reported that veteran Dan Rossi was taking advantage of a 19th Century law that allowed vets to vend without paying, more veteran have been making their way to Fifth Ave, many employed by vendors who use them to beat the law and allow them to sit idly nearby. The mayor said, "They hire a vet to stand there and [he] has nothing to do with [it]. That's as much fraud [as] minority and women-owned businesses where you just hire somebody that's a minority or woman and say, 'Oh, you're the name person.'" As for Pasang Sherpa, after being evicted from his $600K lease to vend at the Met, Rossi hired him to man his stand after seeing Sherpa crying on the Met stairs. Now Sherpa simply joined in on the "rent-a-vet" system, paying disabled Leo Morris Jr. $100 a day to nap in his car near Sherpa's new cart.

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Comments (9) [rss]

I guess these carts really are a pretty good business if you can afford to pay a guy $100 a day to sit in his car.

That picture is priceless

one of my favorite photos - though, you've used this once before and i saved it to My Pictures for possible future use. where did you find this?... on nyc.gov's Photo Gallery?

I find overturning term limits far more disgusting than making a few buck selling hot dogs

I think Bloomberg's office should be forced to have a "rent-a-vet" system set up.

I think you meant to write "winner".

Bloomberg is right on this. Only vets that actually work the stands should be able to take advantage of this ridiculous law.

The more interesting question is why the City is only now trying to enforce the law when there is an issue on the Upper East Side. This stuff is going on every day downtown. How about a little focus below 14th Street Mike.

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