Something’s rotten in Chinatown.
Cops have cracked down on the filthy fruit and vegetable market along Forsythe Street, next to the Manhattan Bridge — arresting shady merchants who sell food without licenses, demanding that reeking heaps of trash be picked up, and installing barriers to prevent scofflaw parking by box trucks with no refrigeration.
Among the disgusting allegations: merchants turning their trucks into toilets-on-wheels.
“There’s no bathroom, so they would pee in their trucks. They would pee in a bag and throw it out on the street and never clean it up,” charged a mechanic from the Bridgeview Auto Center, located opposite the market, which sets up shop between Canal and Division streets.
The much-needed cleanup has been ongoing for a month. Cops have arrested two vendors, towed four trucks and issued 12 Environmental Control Board summonses, police said.
One alleged scofflaw, Jiang Yong-Hua, 46, was nabbed for illegally hocking food on June 21 and busted again two days later, police said. He couldn’t produce a valid vendor’s license either day and tried to weasel out of trouble by flashing a forged Social Security card, police said.
Another unlicensed merchant, Yullah Mohammad, 49, was hauled away on June 28, police said. He allegedly had more than 200 boxes piled up next to his stand, blocking the sidewalk and creating an overpowering stench.
Cops have implemented a temporary parking ban to stop box trucks that house food with no refrigeration from sitting for hours on end.
Merchants gripe that the sanitary initiative has sunk sales.
“There’s no business, no people. There used to be big lines but not now,” said frustrated vendor Andy Lin, 28.
But locals were pleased by the cleanup.
Customer Linda Lam, 55, said, “The streets are more clean now, and everybody here knows that they need to clean up at the end of the day.”