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Early Addition
For the love of all that is crafty and thrifty: Brooklyn's beloved Flea is in danger! NYMag reports that "the large church on Vanderbilt & Lafayette along with some FG residents are meeting this week to try to shut it down." This is their third meeting addressing the topic, and each meeting has grown in size and support. Yikes! Jonathan Butler, organizer of the Brooklyn Flea, confirmed the problems and told us the following:
At this point, as far as we know, it's a matter of a few residents and church members who feel inconvenienced by some quality of life issues that are the natural by-product of holding an event like this. Councilmember Tish James will be presenting a number of specific steps to address these concerns at the meeting on Thursday and we are optimistic that the community will be able to move forward from there. The Flea is a source of both economic stimulus and community building and the large majority of people in the area--including the Fort Greene Association and the Society for Clinton Hill--are in full support of it.Allegedly Tish will even be addressing the concerns at the meeting on Thursday, but something tells us the main concern has nothing to do with parking and port-o-potties, and everything to do with pushing back against gentrification. The next meeting is this Thursday (7 p.m.) at the Queen of All Saints' Roman Catholic Church at Lafayette and Vanderbilt.
Photo via Luzer's Flickr.
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God. If you really, REALLY, can't stand people move the fuck out of new york and do the rest of us the favor in opening up real estate for those of us who enjoy a DIFFERENT "quality of life" then your idea of xenophobia and NO NOISE.
really? a flea market? this is what these nimby's are getting up in arms about? wait until the hipsters start opening up bars with "backyards" & they can't sleep on weeknights. these morons need to learn how to pick their battles.
I can see the flea from my bedroom window every Sunday. While I agree that the neighborhood is a lot busier because of it, it's confined to one day a week, and let's not kid ourself into thinking that it's suddenly like Manhattan. It's really not that big a deal. I can imagine it presents parking issues for all the folks who are going to church, but I'll bet you all the folks who own restaurants and shops in the area wont' be attending that meeting. The flea should be sensitive to neighbors, but, as one of those neighbors, I don't feel like my rights have been trampled upon and my quality of life compromised.
The church should be closed down to open up parking for people who want to shop the flea market.
i think a lot of the long time residents of FG don't want anything to change. they don't like young people starting families and buying property in their neighborhood. i've witnessed their rude behavior towards newbies in the past few years. i think it's pretty sad. it's a flea market for godsake-once a week! it's good- for obvious reasons.
come to williamsburg, Flea. we'll take ya.
There's a church EVERY SIX FEET in Brooklyn ... do you really need to drive to find one?
Why don't they just call it the "bedbug market"?
Never heard of it.
The flea market is in the track and field area of Bishop Loughlin H.S, which has been there since the 1920s.
What's the problem with these whiners? The mart is confined by a perimeter fence and well run.
They need to bring the crack dealers and muggers back so that these jerks will have something to really bother them.
I wouldn't worry bout the residents, they can take care of themselves. they've been there for a long time, don't forget brooklyn has the highest amount of african americans than all the boroughs.
they'll do fine. it's white flight that's the problem, East NY used to be Italian and Jewish.
i'm so sick of the "long timers" whining and complaining. it's because of the influx of new blood in the neighborhood that has transformed the hood from the crack infested cesepool that it once was and has turned into one of nyc's most desireable neighborhoods. it's not thanks to the "newbies" that the "long timers" property values have gone up 4 fold in the last decade. get a grip "long timers" - if it's that bad sell your places amdtake the profits we helped to build.
Well there's a nice collection of condescension for ya.
You guys sound like you've done a nice job "civilizing" the neighborhood. Even though this is the internet, and we've moved past being politically correct, a ton of these comments reek of 19th century style Social Darwinism. Boyeee.
Though I'm sure it feels good to say what makes ya feel good, it might make sense to take into consideration the culture of the neighborhood you move into instead of being so quick to supplant it. And although Fort Greene had it's fair share of crime before all y'all moved in, I can't imagine it's right to type all neighbors as such.
I saw the signs plastered (illegally, of course) on lampposts around the neighborhood and reacted with some puzzlement.
Noise? Like lombardicus, I have bedroom windows that face the Bishop Loughlin playground. Even in mild weather, when the windows are open, I have never been disturbed by the noise. The school itself organizes no end of noisy activities around the year: sports activities, convocations, and the trial of trials, four hours of "The Theme from Rocky" on Marathon Sunday.
Garbage? The Flea organizers and merchants are very conscientious about collecting litter and leaving the site (and adjoining sidewalks -- which are now attracting unaffiliated vendors) spic-and-span by 6:00 o'clock Sunday evening. The garbage truck makes a very noisy appearance around 4:00 AM Monday morning, but I quickly go back to sleep.
Parking? Ironically, Sunday is usually the easiest day of the week to find parking, since many car owners use them for week-end getaways. Why should anyone need a car to get to church or to the Flea, for that matter? Three bus lines and the subway all stop within a block of the site.
Gentrification? Well, when I moved here 23 years ago, the neighborhood was far from "crack-infested." The residential core was strong, and most buildings were well-maintained and owner-occupied. Thanks largely to the intervention of Pratt Institute, which served as a buyer of last resort, Fort Greene and Clinton Hill never suffered the abandonment and devastation of say, East New York or Bushwick.
Crime rates overall were a bit below the city-wide average, but some areas, like a house on Lafayette, a playground on Waverley, and Fulton Street and points south, still had serious problems. Some diligent police work gradually cleaned up the scene.
It's true that some of the new buyers in my building chatter about expensive amenities, like a roof deck or 24-hour doormen, which will send my maintenance skyrocketing. But they all seem to be heavily leveraged and back down when they hear the costs.
As always, it's better to talk about the facts than shriek about the rumors.