Council Member Garodnick introduced a bill this week that would require the Health Department to post letter grades on food vending carts, just like the system the City is about to put in place for restaurants.
As we discussed here and here, this sounds like a bad idea to us. But actually, this bill gives us a chance to shed some light on an important issue — how DOH inspectors harass hard-working food vendors with high fines for arbitrary “violations” that have nothing to do with health or safety. The grading system will only give these bullies more power to ruin vendors’ livelihoods.
For example, Mohammed Shafiqul Islam was given two tickets for having an excessively dirty cart. Compare this video with these pictures and let us know what you think.
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