AA's "Fat Flier" Got Whole Row
Ashley Dupre On Tiger Woods' Babes: "At Least I Kept My Mouth Shut"
Same-Sex Marriage Blame Game Aims at Paterson, Addabbo
Wife Tries To Abort And Poison Husband's Lovechild
Rihanna's Random Airport Search
Sen. Chuck Schumer appeared in Red Hook yesterday to support the plight of the vendors that serve the people who come to watch and play sports at the Red Hook ballfields. The vendors have been cooking up ethnic food that appeals to their mostly Hispanic clientele for several years under a series of temporary permits from the city. The Parks Dept. wants to put an official vending permit up for bidding, and the current vendors who sell relatively low-priced food to their customers are not assured of winning the contest over a business catering to newer and more well-heeled Red Hook residents.
This is not strictly a class issue. Top Chef overseer Tom Colicchio and other esteemed chefs and food journalism personalities have lobbied in support of the current Latino vendors. Sen. Schumer showed his support yesterday, eating a goat taco and barbecued corn, before comparing the vendors to the trees of Brooklyn, that provide the shade and substance to their community. A Parks Dept. spokesman stated that the open bidding was simply an effort to comply with department regulations.
We hope that Sen. Schumer's appearance will add some weight to the cause of Bay St. vendors. It's also a demonstration of the continued power of the immigrant vote in NYC and NY State. Grandstanding in favor of recent immigrants in hopes of their future votes is a New York tradition dating back centuries.
(Sweaty Senator Schumer, by Atomische.com at flickr)
add to stumble upon
add to reddit
tweet this
post to facebook
These vendors have turned that part of Red Hook into a destination for food lovers from all over the city. If they auction off the concession rights and one of those generic places that puts on the "street fairs" or the carts in Central Park wins, nobody will ever go to the ballfields anymore. The vendors ARE the destination, without them there is nothing. This is what the Parks Department doesn't seem to understand.
"nobody will ever go to the ballfields anymore. The vendors ARE the destination, without them there is nothing."
Umm, rodney, the food vendors have been serving snacks at the ballfields for 33 years. They are there because of the families that come to play futbol and baseball. Our patronage (that is to say, us gringos) has boosted the sales, as well as the spirits of the cooks, and helped to publicize their existence over the past few years. Ultimately, though, games will still be played there, and people, even those dark-skinned "nobodies," will still come.
I realize what you are saying ping, and am sorry if my post came across as dismissive of the original community use of the fields. The main point still stands however, if the concessions at the fields are genericized, everybody loses, the teams that play, their fans and us "gringos" who come from far away to enjoy their food.
Dave's post claims it's an issue of Latino-oriented food vs. "a business catering to newer and more well-heeled Red Hook residents." Bzzzt. I'm sure the newer yuppies love huaraches as well. (Seriously, who doesn't.)
Really, the danger is that some jackasses could win the bid and just sell more generic and commercial crap, as opposed to the cheap, authentic, and community-oriented stuff that is there now.