[EVG file photo from either 2015, 2014, 2013...]
Let's just jump right into Politico's story:
Mayor Bill de Blasio's administration is proposing changes to the city’s street fairs intended to end the corporate flavor of many of the festivals, addressing a long-standing complaint from civic groups and elected officials that the fairs are a costly headache and do little to benefit the communities where they’re held.
Under proposed rules scheduled for a public hearing on October 13, at least fifty percent of vendors participating in a street fair would have to be businesses with locations inside the same community board where the event is being held. That proposal marks a major change that could remake the character of the roughly 200 street fairs the city currently allows each year.
The proposed changes must undergo a period of public comment before being approved. If that happens, then street fairgoers may find more than tube socks and tube steaks during High Street Festival Season next year.
Read the whole article here.
Previously on EV Grieve:
Street fair! Street fair! Street fair!
Street fair! Street fair! Street fair!
Street fair! Street fair! Street fair!
Street fair! Street fair! Street fair!
Street fair! Street fair! Street fair!
Street fair! Street fair! Street fair!
Street fair! Street fair! Street fair!
Street fair! Street fair! Street fair!
Street fair! Street fair! Street fair!
Street fair! Street fair! Street fair!
Street fair! Street fair! Street fair!
Street fair! Street fair! Street fair!
Street fair! Street fair! Street fair!
Street fair! Street fair! Street fair!
Street fair! Street fair! Street fair!
More local? Like a yard sale?
ReplyDeleteThis is one of the few positive things to come from the mayors office in long time. I suppose some people enjoy these tube sock festivals but after years of optimistically walking through them I completely avoid any street fair. I understand however that these fares are important income for the usual vendors and I am glad they will remain as the backbone of these things. It would be great for local businesses however to get the word out about their business, the ones on those blocks you don't find yourself walking down too often.
ReplyDeleteMaybe like zeppole trucks only in Little Italy?
ReplyDeleteHe is such an Uber Dick. If it want for his Rent Freeze I would love for him to go.
ReplyDeleteThe people demanded more fried pigeon and squirrel kabob, and the people were heard!
ReplyDeleteYet allowing greedy landlords to squeeze out mom n pop businesses for corperate chain stores is ok? Because at this rate little Italy will soon be Olive gardens & bucca de bepos . 111 yr old art supply store just got their pink slip...rebel rebel records just got their pink slip this year & countless others. No pride in preserving local charms coming from that office.
ReplyDeleteMost local buisinesses don't participate in the street fairs because they dont make enough money to justify it, plus they already have a store right there. Under these rules, East Village Street fairs would be basically comprised of rolled ice cream vendors, froyo, tacos, sushi, pizza and The Sock Man. They might as well kill off the street fairs right now.
ReplyDeleteMost street don't have enough store to warrant a street fair, and most businesses on any given street don't sell the things people look for at street fairs. The 9th Street Block Party is a good example. Granted, it was a block party and not a street fair, but if street fairs become "local", they'll all look like the 9th Street Block Party, where people just brought out their junk to sell.
ReplyDelete2:45PM comment is a lesson.
ReplyDelete"If it want [sic] for his Rent Freeze I would love for him to go" = He may be a douchebag but because I'm benefiting from it personally let's keep him around.
If this is the mentality of your average venal schmuck do wonder why things will never change in the halls of power?
If he wants to make them more local this is what we can expect in the EV: booze, drugs, ICON buying another building, throw in a slashing or two for good measure. And maybe we end the day with a gas explosion. Another great idea from MayorBill.
ReplyDeleteHate street fairs as they cause horrendous re-routing of buses and make getting around on weekends a misery - all for "artisanal" funnel cakes, etc.
ReplyDeleteWould rather see a pier on W. side designated for "street fairs" - it can be a different group each week, or overlap some of the same.
But that's too logical for NYC administration, I guess.
Anon 4:32 Don't forget the weed. And public urination and vomiting.
ReplyDeleteHow would they select who makes the cut and who does not? First come first serve? The Ukrainian festival every May is a true non corporate street fair and they do have vendors who come in from out of town. They would be unable to operate as they have in the past because of so many neighborhood Ukrainian business closures (ex. Surma). This legislation might negatively impact the fair demographic and actually make it more generic. Well it is tough to come up with legislation which addresses all situations and concerns. Will see what happens.
He'll fuck it up somehow.
ReplyDeleteThe street fairs are a blight. (I'm talking about the multi-block ones on major avenues, not the genuinely local like the Ukrainian.) Maybe they made sense 30 years ago when the City's population was 7 or 7.5 million but there are now 8.5 million of us and there is no justification for choking up bus traffic and interfering with the storefront businesses.
ReplyDeleteLess substantively, it also irks me that "community groups" sponsor these fairs and get a (very) few bucks, so that's an excuse to dislocate many thousands of people who live here and need to get around.
I hope the Mayor has some backbone on this issue.
let's lock the door - the horses are gone!
ReplyDeletestreet fairs for local businesses? sounds good except that there are so few local businesses left that are not chains.
too bad our elected officials haven't done anything to save the local stores that they now want to help.
reducing the number and shorten the multi-block every weekend tube-sock street fairs sounds good to me. and perhaps encoruaging more block events that allow outside folks too.
I am with crosstown at 7:04....
ReplyDeleteStreet fairs made sense 30 years ago when there were fewer people and fewer "events".
But now there are tons of street fairs and "events" that close streets completely virtually every weekend, impeding bus transportation and other traffic.
Not to mention that the "fairs" result in overflowing garbage
The city raises property taxes, and water and sewer rates like clockwork. They have also designated most of the EV as a historical district. What this has done is forced landlords (who everyone thinks are solely responsible for squeezing out small local businesses) to seek high paying commercial tenants to make up for the loss of revenue. Sure a lot of real estate corps like Icon are in the picture now but only becasue the mom and pop building owners have been squeezed out due to rising property taxes combined with 'neghborhood preservation'. A big corp like Icon can absorb these losses while waiting for more favorable tenants while a mom and pop building owner can not. Mom and pop buildings where the ones that kept the neighborhood small businesses in business. Corps like Icon will come in and squeeze the life out of the neighborhood and this is promarily the fault of rising taxes and utilities combined with rent controlled apartments. Many buildings have tenants paying $200 a month for large apartments who have no business still being on rent control which causes other apartment rents in the neighborhood to go up as well as forces the landlord to look for commercial tenants to make up the difference.
ReplyDeleteTypical city hall bullshit. Ruin a good suggestion by turning it into a Soviet style diktat.
ReplyDeleteSure, it would be a nice thing if local businesses comprised 50% or more of the vendors at a street fair. But, what if the local vendors decide that they either can't, don't want to, or that their goods really aren't suitable for a street fair? Does that mean the people in the area can't have one?
A better suggestion would be if local businesses got an automatic offer to participate, and if they declined then it can be opened up to others. DiBlasio is just such a failure on so many levels.
Also, they should NOT be permitted on avenues. A nice thing for a neighborhood should not be allowed to strangle transit for the entire fucking city.
@4:32. That's unfair. If the rent freeze is what matters to him/her as a voter, that's what he/she should vote for. He/she only gets one vote, and if he doesn't use it for the issue that matters to him/her.
ReplyDeleteI say this not to support our incompetent incumbent. I'd vote for anybody or anything else. A teenager, a coma patient, a platypus--all would be more suitable and effective.
There's an overriding need in our lives today to fill space. We leave nothing alone. We do not let nature/society takes its course. Astor Place is a perfect example. The space needed to be reconfigured, yes. But then it was turned into a party space? There was no demand by the community. There was no debate. But we get a party space. If it was a green space the entire community would have fallen in love with it. And if there was a vote the EV would have chosen a green space. But like the street fairs... There are Saturdays and there are streets so let's have street fairs. We just have stupid greedy people running our city and they are destroying it one election after the next.
ReplyDeleteThe Atlantic Antic which takes place once a year in BK is pretty awesome and super local.
ReplyDeleteMaybe the EV can do something along those lines.
Fairs are mediaeval. They used to be about food and games – today they're only about selling stuff. They survived in areas where the people were mostly peasants, but with fewer peasants, the fairs became marketplaces.
ReplyDeleteAt 2:52 PM, Anonymous said:
ReplyDeleteThe people demanded more fried pigeon and squirrel kabob, and the people were heard!
Hey, pigeons are good eatin'; don't knock it till you've tried it!