With brief, occasional, italicized and sometimes gratuitous commentary…
• The New York Times reports that the New York City Department of Consumer and Worker Protection has ruled that the Van Leeuwen Ice Cream scoop shops in Manhattan and Brooklyn now will accept cash - which it wasn't, in violation of the city's cashless ban law.
The company will pay $33,500 in outstanding civil penalties.
According to the Times, "The city said that Van Leeuwen has refused to comply with the law, which forbids businesses to accept only credit card payments, since it went into effect in November 2020. Van Leeuwen has 19 locations in New York City and another dozen nationwide … The Office of Administrative Trials, which handles violation summonses from 19 city agencies, found Van Leeuwen to be in violation of the cashless ban more than 90 times, according to the settlement agreement.
"The company repeatedly failed to appear at the majority of the administrative hearings and failed to pay 'some' of the outstanding penalties."
The Times also notes that if you want to pay cash, you'd better bring a lot of it - a single scoop costs upwards of $6.50.
