NY hot dog vendor treating Bloomberg and Cameron furious over frivolous fines

New York, July 23 (ANI): The hot dog vendor who served Mayor Bloomberg and the British prime minister said that the City Hall enjoys ticketing vendors on carts in the Big apple.

Abdus Salam, 41, bad-mouthed the mayor and city agencies for slapping vendors with frivolous fines that eat up profits.

"A lot of people get tickets for 1,000 dollars. You get a 1,000 ticket dollars, you can't work anymore," the New York Daily News quoted Salam as saying.

The Brooklyn resident, who sells 2-dollar wieners outside Penn Station, said he had to pay 400 dollars for three tickets in the past year.

The city Health Department issued him one for not having wet wipes.

The police gave him one for stacking his soda cans too high and another for stationing his cart too far from the curb.

But, on Wednesday, Salam was surprised when Bloomberg and Prime Minister David Cameron popped out of Penn Station and chowed down on two of his dogs during a private chat.

He kept his mouth shut as the pair enjoyed one of Bloomberg's favourite foods, but the hot-dog hawker would relish the opportunity to talk with the mayor again.

"I'd say, 'Relax, let people work.' People get headaches from these big tickets. It's a lot of problems. If Bloomberg would take care of those things, it would be good for us," said Salam.

The city Health Department said Salam - like other vendors - was fined to enforce sanitary conditions.

"Mobile food vendors are encouraged to review our health code. We have a health academy that is on food safety practices, and we encourage vendors to understand what those practices are so they can reduce their likelihood of a violation," said Health Department spokeswoman Susan Craig.

The Street Vendor Project, an advocacy group, says the city has cracked down on vendors in the past year by ticketing pushcart operators who took bathroom breaks and by banning commercial artists from large city parks. (ANI)