The (Ice Cream) Gangs Of New York

in #news9 years ago (edited)

Summer in New York City means ice cream trucks - and their long-running, occasionally bloody turf wars between ice-cream vendors for control of the city’s prime selling spots.

Summer in New York City means ice cream trucks: bell-jingling fleets of pleasure craft festooned with pictures of perfectly swirled desserts and beaming children, delivering frozen providence into grateful sweaty hands.

But behind those cheery facades simmer turf wars — long-running, occasionally bloody feuds between ice cream vendors for control of the city’s prime selling spots.

And in a recent battle for a lucrative zone of tourist attractions and sunny pedestrian plazas, a place filled with people willing to pay $4 for a plain vanilla cone, no sprinkles, the king of ice cream land has lost to an upstart.

Mister Softee says he has been muscled out of Midtown.

Read the full article here:

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/05/31/nyregion/a-king-of-ice-cream-a-renegade-upstart-and-a-simmering-turf-war.html

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