The (Ice Cream) Gangs Of New York
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.
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