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City bans sausage stands

Vendors, customers on Wenceslas Square fight back with petition

December 12th, 2007 issue

By Kimberly Hiss

Staff Writer
Prague City Hall says, No sausage for you! At least not from a stand on Wenceslas Square. New street vendor regulations approved Dec. 4 will mean the much-loved stands offering local and tourist favorites from hot dogs to fried cheese will start disappearing in 2008. The first to go will be the two stands nearest the bottom of the square, which will be removed in June, according to the Czech News Agency (ČTK).
KURT VINION/THE PRAGUE POST
The owner of DMJ, a company operating a number of stands, has started a petition to fight the regulation.
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Deputy Mayor Rudolf Blažek cited the stands’ tendency to produce litter and attract homeless people as the reasoning behind City Hall’s approval of the new rules.
Not surprisingly, vendors are taking issue with the ruling and developing ways to fight back.
“There is no logic,” says Milan Janeček, owner of DMJ, a company that operates a number of the Wenceslas Square stands. Calling the ban, “unsubstantiated,” he added, “I am getting lots of e-mails and letters from people saying this tradition has existed for years and they can’t imagine not being able to buy a sausage here.”
Janeček says his official plans to fight the regulation are pending a discussion with his attorney, but, by Dec. 10, he had already started a petition on Wenceslas Square.
As of that afternoon, an employee working a DMJ stand at the corner of Štěpánská street told The Prague Post she’d gathered eight signatures so far.
“Probably [the stands] don’t matter to foreigners, but Czechs would definitely miss them,” said the woman, who preferred not to give her name. “We work hard, we have no queues here; people just like to pop in and grab a hamburger or sausage and go back to their offices.”
Customers in line at various stands Monday tended to side with the vendors.
“I think it would be a great pity to ban these stalls,” said Olomouc resident Marcela Nová, while waiting for her order at the Štěpánská stand. “Where else you can get some warm, fresh piece of meat that is very tasty? I remember when I was a young girl and went to Prague for a trip, we always got some hot dogs in the center of Prague.”
Local resident Petr Horn, who was at the Vodičkova street corner stand, said he’d heard of the ban on TV.
“The sausage stands are a Prague tradition,” he added. “It’s not right to close them.” Regarding City Hall’s concern that the stalls attract vagrants, he added, “the homeless will be here whether there are sausage stands or not.”
Prague patron Jarmila Čeláková also took issue with City Hall’s reasoning.
“I don’t find it dirty at all,” she said of the stands at the bottom of the square. “I like to buy a sausage here from time to time.”
The disappearance of sausage stands is, of course, only one of a number of upcoming changes to Wenceslas Square, which is scheduled for an extensive renovation at the hand of architect Jakub Cigler. Chosen by city officials in November 2005, Cigler’s proposed plans included, in addition to limitations on food stalls, more space for pedestrians and the re-routing of car traffic.
Although not everyone is looking forward to the sausage-free aspect of the square’s future, patrons realize they’ll have to find ways to cope.
“After the stands are gone, I’ll just go to McDonald’s, I guess,” said high-school student Vladimír Lieberzeit. “That’s good for McDonalds, but not good for my wallet.”
— Naďa Černá and Hela Balínová contributed to this report.
Kimberly Hiss can be reached at khiss@praguepost.com


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