Gothamist: No Solutions at the Brooklyn Flea Meeting

tamar_e4

Mon, 28 Jul 2008 14:59:50 -0500

Rfive - i agree with you, but i think this is more about parking than raligious practice...

Rfive

Sun, 27 Jul 2008 12:56:11 -0500

Obviously you've never been there tamar. There are vendors OUTSIDE of the schoolyard too, and the street/sidewalk IS crowded. Parking is also impossible. The NY marathon is one day a year. Hardly comparable. Why not hold it on a Saturday? Why is that not an option in a non-semitic community? If this were boro park, crown heights or williamsburg, they would never consider holding it on the sabbath of the community.

tamar_e4

Sun, 27 Jul 2008 12:22:15 -0500

Reminder: before this flea market there was a weekend flea market that usually took place just outside of this schoolyard, on the public sidewalk, which displayed flea-market items on sale mostly by tenants of the clinton walk coop and other stray individuals. It took place on Saturdays because, let's face it - they all go to church on Sunday! Brooklynflea is organized, and contained within the boundaries of the school yard. It is no different than any other event that takes place on private property, and for which the owner is being compensated. The church never oposes the NY marathon when it comes down Lafayette avenue - on the contrary; the choir does a wonderful job in keeping everyone's spirits up. Maybe if they took similar action here they would deliver the true message of the church, which welcomes everyone, instead of shooting down humble artists who favor giving up their sunday to make a buck during a recession rather than praying for salvation from others...

thefacts

Sun, 27 Jul 2008 10:10:59 -0500

teany: Silver emailed it to the hundreds of people on his list, Jewish and Christian. Are you so prejudiced, naive or dopey that you think politicians ask whether their supporters go to Church or Synagogue on a regular basis? No, it is a double-standard. As the Church Lady said, "this flea market would never occur across the street from a synagogue on a Saturday." Silver proved her right. He expects Christian Sabbath to be violated, but not his Saturday Sabbath. While anti-Semitism is decried, liberals still practice Catholic-bashing with pride.

bornbrednewyorker

Sun, 27 Jul 2008 00:20:34 -0500

Communities need flea markets? That's a new one on me.

teany

Sat, 26 Jul 2008 14:23:30 -0500

#10: How is this e-mail a valid comparison? Maybe Silver's volunteers are Jewish, or at least non-church-going Christians. He's not forcing them to work when they don't want to (um, they're volunteers), just like the organizers of the Brooklyn Flea aren't forcing church-going Christians in Fort Greene to shop. How is it disrespectful to have an event in a community where there happen to be people going to church? If that was the case, the whole country should go back to having blue laws. This is such a straw-man argument, it's not even funny.

thefacts

Sat, 26 Jul 2008 13:41:53 -0500

I agree Anna, #8. This email came from ultra-orthodox NYS Assembly speaker Sheldon Silver's Campaing HQ: "Just a quick reminder about Silver Sunday. This Sunday, July 27th at 11:30 a.m. volunteers from throughout Lower Manhattan will come together to show our support for Shelly." Shelly is so obervant that he won't ride an elevator on Saturday, everything he eats is Glaat Kosher, etc, but he sees no problem with asking Christians to work on their Sabbath! Point is that the Church Lady was right; there is a double standard. This flea market would never occur on a Saturday in South Williamsburg, Crown Hgts, or Borough Park.

kaci

Sat, 26 Jul 2008 13:37:40 -0500

PROPERTY VALUES?!? when live in a building with no intention to move or sell cause it is your home. higher property values means higher taxes. not such a good thing for many. like some one sed its not all about money. i do like a flea market tho...and miss them in my community.

Anna_Merkin

Sat, 26 Jul 2008 12:40:04 -0500

Nearly every predominantly black neighborhood in the U.S. filled with middle and lower-middle class residents has had a "Christian" culture mainly marked by the density of churches and the typical crowds of families on Sundays going to attend those churches. One need took no farther than Lafayette in Ft. Greene/Clinton Hill to see a stream of families and in many cases, decked out older women replete with their "church hats" walking to or driving to the local place of worship, followed by dinner afterward - either at a matriarch's home or in a local restaurant catering to the soul food proclivities of said community. While the 1980's and early 90's crack "epidemic" did much to dilute these traditions in some of the poorer predominantly black communities, the "culture" still exists. Newcomers ought to pay a little more attention to the patterns of those around them. They might learn a little bit about community.

JacqueMehoff

Sat, 26 Jul 2008 11:46:10 -0500

that's an excellent point Rfive. why does a community need a flea market? it's like a light bulb goes off and someone says, hey this community needs a flea market.

woodendesigner

Sat, 26 Jul 2008 11:29:23 -0500

I know many people that live within a few blocks of this market and it is something that this neighborhood desperately needs. It is not a mainly religious neighborhood and it is very densely populated. If you want a "religious community" then you should get out of the city and buy out a depressed town somewhere.

Billiamsburg

Sat, 26 Jul 2008 10:55:55 -0500

Zuh? Since when has Brooklyn and New York been a "Christian community"? Keeping the Sabbath holy is hardly a community institution here.

Rfive

Sat, 26 Jul 2008 10:00:00 -0500

Everybody is not interested in property values raising, some communities value other things, such as religion. This is an example of a newcomer to a neighborhood that wants to promote change which clashes with a community institution.

woodendesigner

Fri, 25 Jul 2008 19:16:55 -0500

Or keep property values high.....

JacqueMehoff

Fri, 25 Jul 2008 18:32:54 -0500

what property values? redlining. thankfully there's no redlining in Pb. sure we may have to go elsewhere but it's available.

woodendesigner

Fri, 25 Jul 2008 18:17:36 -0500

Maybe some of the people that oppose this market should think about how things like this make their property values go up. They should also keep in mind that just because they want to devote their day to their religion does not mean that everyone else needs to. It's not like the market is being held INSIDE their church.