"As Mayor, I will put an end to this scourge on our quality of life…"

<p>Street Fairs!</p> <p>Here is an issue for any daring city political hopeful, [l:http://www.ocdblogger.net/blog/2005/05/30/street-fairs-the-bane-of-summer-in-the-city|END STREET FAIRS]. Sure, everyone likes the convenience of shopping for cheap socks while enjoying some spicy Italian sausage with onions and peppers that you can wash down with fresh lemonade and top off with a Nutella Crepe, but come on, think about the economic cost of all the traffic, the air polution for idling cars and humming 2 stroke generators powering the funnel cake fryers and smoothy blenders, what about the lost revenue of the stores that seemingly get baricaded in by the chatchke vendors? And the hapless New Yorkers who live upstairs from these blocks-long open air extravaganzas? The smell of roasting sausage and BBQ corn wafting into their apartments…</p> <p>So listen up Anthony, and Andrew, Giff and Betsy, Norman and Virginia: Ban Street Fairs. Lets create a few "Parade Grounds" around the city on underused vacant lots and let those be magnets for these festivals, create a few open air markets, the revenues of which would be made available to non profits and community groups who applied for them as grants, rather than applying for street fair permits that they simply flip to big street fair event producers.</p> <p>I would venture a guess that if you asked New yorkewrs if they were willing to contribute $5 a year to end all street fairs, they would do it.</p>