Hot Dog Man Can’t Get a Break

I worked in center city Allentown for a year or so back in the day and they was (might still be) a hotdog vendor that sat right across from Crocodile Rock.

Cheap. Fast. Good. However, I only went there when I wanted cheap, fast and greasy, kinda like any girl that hangs out at Starters Riverport.

The stand was a novelty, being that they seem mostly reserved for larger cities, but whatever, they must have been making some sort of money or they wouldn’t have been open that long.

So, a guy recently wanted to start his own hot dog stand in South Bethlehem, but local businesses are crying foul and trying to kick his ass out.

Edwin Padilla had just one thought last year when he was laid off from his construction job: hot diggity dog!

With little hope of getting back in the home building business in this economy, Padilla invested $6,000 in a hot dog cart like the ones he’d seen in New York City and got the licenses to sell hot dogs just blocks from his home in south Bethlehem.

Barely two weeks into his stint at Fourth and New streets, Padilla already knows the orders of the regulars who visit his cart with the yellow-and-red umbrella.

But the 30-year-old entrepreneur is getting backlash from some longtime merchants who say he’s stealing customers and from city officials who want him off that corner. Padilla is one of three vendors licensed by the Health Bureau to have such carts, but city officials say he is the only one who operates consistently and in the same spot.

…

Tina Kowalski, who owns the Funhouse bar near the hot dog stand, suggested Padilla set up shop at a public park or library.

”He’s selling hot dogs in front of restaurants, on the street, on top of a sewer grate,” said Kowalski, who started the petition. ”He has lawn chairs out there. It just doesn’t look good.” Source

Jeeez, the guy’s trying to play by the rules, get the right permits, do what he’s legally obligated to do, but NOoOOOO the owner of the FUNHOUSE has the nerve to say that “it just doesn’t look good.” Have you ever gone to the bathroom in the fucking bar? You have to hold it closed with your foot.

Whatever, the guy is making due with what he has to since he got laid off or whatever, I’m sure he’s not cutting into any profits. Besides, now that the casino is in town, the hot dog man is going to be the least of your motherfucking worries this summer local merchants.