After yesterday's protest over a supposed Health Department crackdown on food vendors who take bathroom breaks, peanut vendor Shirajul Islam, who had his permit confiscated while he was in the can last week, went to get his cart inspected. Because of all the publicity, the city expedited the process yesterday, but ultimately the permit was denied because Islam failed to bring his cooking utensils or a notarized letter from the garage where he stores his cart. He was also cited for soot in one corner of his cart and a malfunctioning burner. Sean Basinski, director of the Street Vendor Project, witnessed the inspection and blasted the Health Department:

Unfortunately, this is nothing new: ‘gotcha’ technicalities like producing a formal letter in 12 hours are typical of how the DOH bullies vendors. I watched the inspection - the cart was spotless. It’s unbelievable they would jump him to the front of the line and then penalize him for not guessing what to bring. Vendors already face confusing and arbitrary rules that would never close a restaurant and crippling fines up to $1000 for minor infractions like being the wrong distance from the curb or displaying your permit in the wrong spot.

We also spoke with Dan Kass, Acting Deputy Commissioner of the Environmental Health Bureau. Naturally, Kass defended the Health Department inspectors, but he also insisted there is no "crackdown" on food vendors who take bathroom breaks. Kass told us:

This was our opportunity to see if his cart is clean and being operated correctly. Despite having a week to get his cart ready and an advocate from the Street Vendors Project with him, he arrived with a dirty, incomplete cart without proper documentation. We had only one option, to ask him to clean up his cart and ask him to come back.

The requirements are very clear, and this is a relatively simple cart. Cooking utensils are part of the cart, and the burners must be clean. If we were to let carts onto the street with burners that are not operating properly and cooking utensils that are not clean, we would be doing the public a disservice. It needs a burner, it needs utensils and it needs to be clean and it needs to have documentation. It failed on all those counts

When asked if there is any enhanced enforcement on vendors using the bathroom, Kass said no, and explained the rules:

When we find a cart that doesn't have an attendant, we wait a minimum of half an hour. If the vendor returns within that time, there's no problem. But when they leave the cart for an extended period of time and the food is not secure, it's a violation. Keep in mind that we're talking about mobile food carts. We don't know where they are day to day, and on the one time we find them, for an inspection that may only happen once that year, we have to assume that what we're seeing is how it's treated on a regular basis.

If they get someone to cover for them, they don't need to be licensed unless they're selling food. This was not the case. [Islam] was absent for 45 minutes between the time when the inspector arrived and removed his decal. And then there was an additional ten minutes. before he finally came back. The cart was entirely open during that time.

Kass told us that Islam can come back for another inspection any time; he just needs to schedule an appointment. But the Street Vendors project points out that Islam will have to go to a DOH office in Queens to regain his permit, and transporting his cart will cost him $100. Meanwhile, he "will have to wait days until his garage can give him the notarized letter" and he's been losing approximately $100 each day he has been out of work.