NEW YORK —  The soccer tacos have been saved, after a monthslong fight pitting city regulation against a delicious tradition.

The Parks Department announced Monday that vendors at Brooklyn's Red Hook Park soccer field can continue to serve up tacos, empanadas, pupusas and other authentic Latin American food for at least six more years.

The department previously threatened to effectively end the seasonal, decades-old culinary draw, which provided Latino New Yorkers a taste of home while they watched weekend soccer tournaments and offered the city's foodies a bite of authenticity.

"It's a family affair, not just for the vendors ... but also for our patrons," Cesar Fuentes, executive director of the Food Vendors Committee of Red Hook Park. "It's 33 years that we've been in that park. That means there are a couple of generations that have grown up eating there."

New Yorkers had organized a fierce campaign to "save the soccer tacos," located in a working-class neighborhood that has recently become a hub for gentrification and commercial development. The city's food bloggers religiously followed the vendors' plight, and the cause attracted high-profile supporters including New York Democrat Sen. Charles Schumer.

"The vendors have been at the vanguard of the Red Hook renaissance, and now they have another six years to continue their delectable work," Schumer said Monday in a statement.

The vendors in Red Hook had been operating from May to October under temporary permits that for years were renewed every four weeks. But last year, the Parks Department decided the vendors had to start following the concession regulations in place in other areas.

They were required to submit formal proposals for permanent licenses, and the vendors feared they would be priced out of their longtime home. In Central Park, hot dog stand licenses can cost as much as $300,000.

But in the end, the Red Hook Park vendors' committee was the only applicant, said Parks Department spokesman Phil Abramson. The sellers' yearly fees _ previously at about $10,000 for the entire group _ would rise by only about 5 percent each year, he said.

Even so, Fuentes said, the new rules present a financial hardship for his group's members.

Each seller may have to invest upwards of $30,000 for a food vending truck approved by the Health Department, Fuentes said. He said two of the group's original 13 members have left because of money concerns.

___

On the Net:

Save Soccer Tacos: http://savesoccertacos.blogspot.com

Department of Parks: http://www.nycgovparks.org

Copyright 2008 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.