Hot dog vendor Pasang Sherpa made headlines a few months back for his big six-figure bids to guarantee lucrative space slinging franks outside the Metropolitan Museum, paying out $643,000 annually to the Parks Department for his spots outside the Met. At the time, he said that he didn't want to pay the city his big rent bills because he contended that nearby construction was having too negative of an impact on his business. Now after following through on his threat to hold off rent, the city has responded by evicting him. A Parks Department spokesman says Sherpa had fallen $310,000 behind in rent. Sherpa told the News that he was "going crazy" and didn't know what to do or where to go. Even more lost though were some Rhode Island tourists outside the Upper East Side museum, one of whom told the paper, "We don't know the area or where else to eat but here. There's no other place to eat around here." When Sherpa's original beef was reported in January, the Post said that another nearby vendor on 5th Avenue was set up and operating without permission or paying anything because of "a regulation that lets veterans like him bypass the bidding process."
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