outrage

At the risk of this becoming a bacon site:

Street vendors feel the heat
Change hasn't been good for cart owners, who say they are being pushed out as downtown gets a taste of gentrification.
Anna Gorman, LA Times, 4/1/07

In September, Los Angeles police officers launched a crackdown on street sales, enforcing laws that had been largely ignored for years, impounding carts, issuing citations and arresting vendors for misdemeanor crimes.

The enforcement is part of the Safer City Initiative, designed to reduce crime in and around skid row.

"We are not the hot dog patrol," said Police Capt. Andrew Smith. "It is but a tiny slice of the enforcement we do. But part of changing the culture of lawlessness is enforcing the laws that are on the books."

Smith said the vendors can still sell food on the streets, as long as they follow the law. For Arias, that means having the required business and health permits, using precooked hot dogs and moving her cart every hour. The law also prohibits her from grilling hot dogs with bacon, a popular Mexican treat whose preparation county health officials consider unsanitary and unsafe.

In addition, Smith said much of the downtown street vending is unsanitary. "If you were a county restaurant, you would have a C-grade…. "

"There are absolutely no safeguards whatsoever in terms of sanitation," Powell said of the illegal vendors.

Even with a special vending district, Arias said, she still expected competition from illegal vendors — or piratas.

"The only way we can get rid of piratas is if we are allowed to cook with bacon," Arias told the group.

"We have to focus on one thing," Corpeo interjected. "Do we want to focus on the issue of bacon or on the issue of selling on the streets?"

If I was going to clean up downtowwn Los Angeles, I'd start with the drug dealers & homelessness, the LAPD has chosen to go after hot dog vendors.

If you haven't eaten a bacon wrapped hot dog you should. Bacon dog vendors are a fixture outside LA concerts and sporting events. The dogs come standard with onions, peppers & mayo. As the hot dog and bacon cook their grease is spooned over the onions and peppers. The carts are often little more than four wheel dollys supporting metal sheet pans wrapped in foil with charcoal heating the pan.

Having never gotten sick after consuming dozens of the dogs through the years I don't get the health department hysteria. I've gotten far sicker from legitimate restaurants such as Togos & In-N-Out Burger, both of which boasted an "A" rating from the health department.

I'll continue to assume some gastrointestinal risk and eat the dogs, provided there are dogs to eat.