Residents of Whitestone are unleashing some raw anger in response to new neighbors hanging uncooked bacon and chicken outside their house in order to dry and cure it. It's no street shrimp, but then, what is?
Residents who live on 7th Avenue in Whitestone told ABC7 that the D.I.Y. curing efforts are attracting rats and raccoons to the neighborhood. Not that I'm unsympathetic to people wanting to steer clear of raccoons' and their weird terrible little hands, but it would appear that we have no choice but to deal with them, both inside and outside.
A resident of the meat home in question told ABC that the food is being hung outside to make traditional Chinese food. There's also been a long discussion about the hanging meat on a local Facebook group that's turned into a debate on whether or not hanging chickens and strips of bacon outside someone's home is going too far in terms of refusing to assimilate to American norms.
There isn't a specific city ordinance against hanging meat outside your home, and much like the people in Bensonhurst who hung fish outside their homes, the Health Department won't be forcing the residents to take down their meat unless it turns into a nuisance. Just don't you go and get any ideas about starting your own New York City Curing Company that sells Bath Beach Bacon and Hamilton Heights Ham that's cured using the healthy air of New York City: the Health Department will come down on you if you try to cure meat in your backyard for commercial use.
