By Kevin Wilkerson, PubClub.com San Diego Nightlife Blogger
That smell filling up the Gaslamp Quarter on weekend nights comes not that of sweet perfume coming from beautiful girls or some type of pleasant aroma from the bars and nightclubs.
It’s more like a stench and it comes from the dozens of hot dog venders clogging up the sidewalks. On nearly every corner, they are side-by-side-by side, making it nearly impossible to get through without tripping into them or stepping off the curb into the now-open-to-traffic-again Fifth Ave. They stink and the sheer number of them soils the nightlife experience of San Diego’s Gaslamp Quarter.
Overall, I am not at all opposed to a view vendors setting up carts but dozens of them, many lined up right next to each other, is not needed and should not be tolerated.
Something needs to be done to get rid of most – if not all – of them. It’s ridiculous. Three or four are on each corner for blocks, especially the busiest two blocks between F and Market streets. How ridiculous is it? A recent count on a Saturday night showed five – five! – on the corner of F and Fifth. Even more startling, they were right in front of a restaurant, the popular Tacos el Gordo. The vendors are in force in front of a food place and are no doubt taking away some of its customers while paying none of the taxes or rent. I don’t know how the restaurant put up with it.
The next-worst intersection is G and Fifth in front of Toro nightclub. To get through, you have to dodge the vendors while not running into other pedestrians on the sidewalk and the people lined to get into Toro. Police officers on bikes just stand there looking for troublemakers and are obviously not given any authority to cut down on this sidewalk-clogging, awful-smelling scene.
And yes, hot dogs do smell. Along with the onions and other sides items that are on the grill. Not only that but the smoke from the grills partially blocks one’s vision, which is not exactly a safe thing considering the carts, the people and permanent obstacles there leave almost no walking space on the sidewalks.
The whole thing makes me nauseous and I have to either pull my shirt over my nose, try to get around them or just avoid Fifth Ave. I should not have to do any of this and the city needs to reel in the out-of-control hotdog vendor situation.
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