In the latest food cart controversy to hit the hotly contested turf in Dolores Park, the neighbors have spoken: no one likes a sausage slinger. Or the Sausage Slinger, rather — a popular Sacramento-based hot dog cart whose owners dutifully applied for the proper permits to move in to San Francisco before being roundly met with objections from the neighbors.

In the words of Geoff Koziol, a UC Berkeley professor, 9-year neighbor of Dolores Park and the Chronicle's face of the sausage resistance, "somehow the park became the destination for everybody under 30 in the entire Bay Area... The park is already at its breaking point in terms of use. The entire neighborhood is at its breaking point in terms of overuse." In other words, once a hot dog cart moves in, the Mission is over. And a "half-dozen" other Dolores Park neighbors agree.

Superviser Wiener (chortle), whose district includes the park, disagrees. He called the strip of 18th Street, "one of the most vibrant parts of San Francisco." Indeed, sausage slinging was around long before any proposed hot dog carts.

Dolores Park regulars will remember the last food cart spat involved the Chaac Mool taco truck, (which is delicious, by the way). Last week, Chaac Mool was relegated to a curbside location despite being completely approved and permitted to operate in the park proper. Prior to that, Blue Bottle aborted their in-park coffee cart after threats were made against the staff.

[Chron]