When food trucks started getting kicked out of pretty much every neighborhood in Manhattan, a handful of vendors decided to take their business across the Hudson and set up shop in Hoboken. There was already a thriving food truck scene in the city prior to the Manhattan crackdown, but now, even New Jersey is putting the kibosh on mobile food vendors, setting up some crazy hoops for vendors to jump through. more ›

Health inspectors are putting the kibosh on kimchi, the fermented cabbage dish that's a staple of Korean cuisine, because they "don't understand what it is," say many Korean restaurant owners. Someone take the Health Department out for a night of grill-it-yourself Korean BBQ and soju-fueled karaoke, STAT! more ›

Old-school Theater District haunt Sardi's got slapped by the cold hand of the law last night, when the bar-snack hating Health Department visited and ordered the bar to stop offering their signature free communal cheese pots and bowls of pretzels and peanuts to guests. more ›

The seemingly endless battle against food vendors shifted into SoHo today, the first time a significant fight has taken place below 14th Street. And the Hipster Cop is on the case! more ›

White Slab Palace, the cavernous Scandinavian bar and restaurant on a busy Delancey Street intersection, appears to have slung its last Aquavit: after suffering a series of NYPD and SLA-related setbacks earlier this summer, the space has shuttered for good. more ›

After months of increasing tension between mobile food vendors and brick-and-mortar restaurants (plus some very cranky little old ladies) on the Upper West Side, area cops are seriously cracking down on the vendors. Here's a look at their latest tactics designed to run the trucks and carts straight out of town. more ›

Earlier this week, we heard the rumblings of some new legislation designed to curb the spread of mobile food vendors, who have already been facing down opponents in Midtown, the Upper West Side and Park Slope. Today, the Post reports that UWS Councilwoman Gale Brewer has indeed introduced a new bill, requiring the Department of Health to report the number of permits it issues each year to food trucks and carts, as part of a larger plan to regulate trucks overall. We spoke to Brewer to find out what exactly her beef with food trucks and carts is: more ›

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. more ›

The battle over Midtown lunch real estate continues today, with food carts expressing little sympathy for the larger food trucks that have been driven out of the neighborhood by cops suddenly enforcing an ancient Transportation Department regulation. more ›

In the ongoing battle between cops and food trucks in Midtown, truck owners have a few tricks up their sleeves—but it's not easy out there for a vendor. more ›

Staten Island residents love their own fireworks displays—you don't have an "all-out brawl" otherwise—but the Staten Island DA's office and NYPD are warning them not to participate in the illegal activity. In fact, the NYPD is flooding certain SI neighborhoods with 100 cops: Borough Commander Stephen Paragallo said the cops would be "broken up into mobile field forces to address complaints of fireworks." more ›

It started with oatmeal cookies. Then it was dumplings, and kimchi tacos, and waffles. Those are just a few of the items being sold out of food trucks that cops have kicked out of Midtown in the past week as part of a new crackdown on mobile food vendors. more ›

NY State bus driver crackdown, which has been going on since the March 12 fatal Bronx bus crash, has now caught city school bus drivers. According to WABC 7, "The men, drivers in Queens, had reportedly been driving with suspended licenses, in one instance for more than 15 years. They were picked up by detectives with the Queens District Attorney's Office for obtaining new licenses by submitting false names and different dates of birth and social security numbers to the Department of Motor Vehicles." more ›

The NYPD is almost halfway through its 24-hour crackdown (it started at midnight) on drivers who are using cell phones. Here's what NY's Finest had to say about the effort: more ›

It's always a gas when you try to explain the law to an ignorant cop writing you a ticket—it's like trying to explain to Paula Deen that butter is a condiment and not actually food. The NYPD's cyclist fetish has intensified to such a degree that cops are not even bothering to write tickets for things that are even technically illegal (like blowing through a red light in the park). Here is the infuriating story of one David Curtis Lettier, an Air Force veteran who was pulled over on West 127th Street while riding his bike to class today: more ›

An eight-months pregnant woman was recently given a $75 summons for traveling between subway cars. And why, given her condition, was she traveling between subway cars? Because she couldn't find a seat on the 1 train! Nora Hsu told the NY Post, "I told the cop, 'Cut me some slack. I'm 32 weeks pregnant, and I'm just trying to get home.' I was out of breath." But the officer allegedly told her, "It doesn't matter... You know what you did was illegal ... You'll have to come with me." Hear that everyone: Pregnant ladies are just like regular people. more ›

On January 29th, TLC agents began enforcing strict new laws and penalties for cab drivers who use hand held electronic devices and cell phones—even hands-free! Since the crackdown began, the city has ticketed 704 taxi drivers, with the first offense carrying a hefty $200 fine. But has the ticket blitz gone too far? more ›

On Friday the Taxi and Limousine Commission began enforcing more strict rules and penalties for cab drivers who use hands-free cell phones or any electronic device capable of making non-emergency phone calls or texting, as well as music players and GPS locators. To make drivers comply, the TLC put enforcement agents outside Grand Central Terminal to check cabs as they drove past. By yesterday morning, a total of 142 summonses had been issued by TLC agents. Fox 5, on the other hand, sent a reporter on repeated cab rides and didn't find a single driver using an electronic device. more ›

There was a 17% spike last year in the number of summonses issued to subway riders who occupy more than one seat. Between January and November 2009, transit police issued 8,700 tickets to commuters who exceeded their legally mandated one seat allotment, either through reclining or foot-propping or bag-resting. That's 1,300 more tickets than they issued for the offense in the same time period in 2008, and it stands in contrast to a decline or plateau in subway summonses in every other category. Seat hogging is punishable by a $50 fine, but many commuters say they're being ticketed during late-night commutes in mostly empty trains. more ›

The NYPD has been cracking down on bike riders who pedal on sidewalks in Chelsea and Gramercy. They issued 43 summonses in those neighborhoods during the last month, and about 90 percent of those ticketed were restaurant deliverymen, a police source tells the Post. The fine for riding on a sidewalk is $100. more ›

Yesterday morning the crackdown on counterfeit rings on Canal Street continued, just as vendors are surely hitting a busy time of year with fake designer handbags being purchased as holiday gifts. 1010Wins reports that "police raided a block of Canal Street off Broadway including 10 buildings and 30 stalls. During the raid, police said they also found secret rooms inside the buildings where dealers allegedly conducted business." Everything from knock-off Chanel bags to Tiffany-esque jewelry was confiscated. more ›

The holidays must be a lucrative time for drivers who lure passengers into their unlicensed taxis at airports, but the Port Authority is making it tough for them this year. Yesterday Queens DA Richard Brown announced [pdf] that a crackdown on unlicensed taxi drivers has resulted in 18 arrests at JFK and LaGuardia. The arrests come a month after Governor Paterson signed a bill increasing penalties for unlawfully soliciting ground transportation at an airport, making it a Class B misdemeanor punishable by up to 90 days in jail and/or a fine of up to $1,250. more ›

Anecdotal evidence suggests that transit police have been cracking down on musicians and other performers busking in the subway system—even though the MTA's own rules permit low-volume performance under certain conditions. A number of musicians and a busker advocacy group tell amNY that "police harassment has grown to disturbing levels in recent months." more ›

The real New York Post (not the far superior, global warming hoax edition) is reporting that the NYPD has cracked down on illegal bike rental vendors. Apparently, you need to be licensed to rent out bicycles, but some illicit pedal pushers have been running their businesses from the sidewalks around Central Park. more ›

Round Two of the NYPD's smackdown on drivers using cell phones for phone calls, texting and emails fell short of the over 9,000 tickets that went out during March's one-day sting. But the city almost certainly cracked the seven-figure mark once again during Thursday's 24-hour ticket blitz, issuing 7,432 tickets at $130 a piece ($200 for cab drivers). Could a 15% drop mean that New Yorker drivers have begun to curb their cellphone usage? Or are they just paying closer attention when the NYPD publicly alerts them to the fact that thirteen times as many tickets will be given out that day? A Daily News writer gives a account of getting nailed for using her Blackberry while driving by Ground Zero on Thursday, taking us through the play-by-play of what getting a ticket is like: "I handed over my license and registration, sat patiently for a few minutes, then took my lumps without saying a word." more ›

In March the NYPD conducted a 24-hour sting targeting drivers behind the wheel with their cell phones, issuing 9,016 tickets during the crackdown. By the end, New York motorists got the message and never used their cellphones while driving again. Kidding—of course it didn't make a damn bit of difference, though it did make some serious loot for the city government. So now it's back to the well, starting at midnight tonight, when cops will start slapping motormouth motorists with $130 fines—$10 more than last time! After 24 hours the crackdown will conclude, and everyone can go back to distractedly steering big hunks of metal through the street with one hand. more ›

The NYPD recently released its summons counts for the seven most common "quality-of-life" violations, and for the past two years, the overall totals have been the highest on record, surpassing 500,000 "quality-of-life crimes" in '07 and '08. The Post reports that last year the number of summonses for drinking in public increased by more than 4,000 (from 66,885 cases to 70,948) from July 1st through December 31st, compared with the same period in 2007. And it doesn't take a conspiracy theorist to get why more people were also busted for public urination during the same time period, up from 3,888 to 4,161. More stats: disorderly conduct arrests during that time dropped from 47,730 to 43,018, marijuana possession busts declined from 4,775 to 4,107, and littering violations were down from 3,216 to 2,901. And the Post says you've got the Post to thank for a recent NYPD crackdown on "quality-of-life" crimes; the tabloid says cops turned up the heat on misdemeanors after the Post reported fewer summonses for minor offenses in 2008 than in 2007. more ›

Take heed, Chatty Kathys, the police are about to start a crackdown on drivers using hand-held cell phones. Of course, the NYPD can't keep their mouths shut either, which is why a police source blabbed all about it to the Post, presumably via cell phone while driving at top speed up Sixth Avenue. The source was even kind enough to reveal the exact moment when the crackdown is set to commence: Starting at 12:01 a.m. Thursday there will be stepped-up enforcement, with more cops assigned to catch people chatting while driving. So you've got less than 48 hours to recklessly multitask; violators face a fine of $120 if caught. In 2008 the NYPD issued 195,579 summonses to drivers using hand-held cellphones, and last August the City Council and State Legislature talked about banning text messaging while driving, too. And once that passes, you know they're coming for your BrickBreaker! more ›

Employees at FreshDirect’s Plant Operations warehouse voted overwhelmingly against unionization over the weekend. Given options of joining either the United Food & Commercial Workers, the Teamsters, or no union at all, 80 percent of the employees voted “no union.” The vote comes in the midst of an ongoing labor crisis at the warehouse; over one hundred undocumented workers were forced out earlier this month as FreshDirect announced an imminent inspection by Immigration and Customs Enforcement [I.C.E.]. more ›

Approximately 85 undocumented workers are being fired from the high-end grocery delivery company Fresh Direct on the on the eve of the holiday season because their status as U.S. residents is disputed. Dozens of workers filed out of the company's Queens warehouse. Fresh Direct blamed a federal probe for the axing of almost a hundred workers. According to the Daily News, "management insisted it carried out the purge under pressure from federal authorities to crack... more ›