The Brooklyn Flea Divides a Community

The Brooklyn Flea gets the NY Times treatment today, which succinctly breaks the market's presence in Fort Greene down to this: the old timers just may not like the yuppies much. The dichotomy in this neighborhood drama is that Flea founders Jonathan Butler and Eric Demby are, per the Times, themselves "protectors of so-called Brownstone Brooklyn, defending their adopted homelands of Fort Greene and Clinton, Cobble and Boerum Hills from rampant, insensitive gentrification. So it is disorienting, to say the least, to be cast as the local villains ruining a neighborhood." On Thursday, they told the community members, “Dictating the hours of our business does not seem reasonable. We want to hear your specific concerns. If you just don’t like us, there’s not a whole lot that we can do.”

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By Jen Carlson in Arts and Events on July 26, 2008 11:29 AM

Comments [rss]

tamar_e4

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...

bornbrednewyorker

I don't like these two guys, they come off as upper East Side spoiled brats slumming it in their "adopted" neighborhoods.

Common sense 101, if you are starting a flea market near a church on a Sunday be a little more pro-active and go visit with the church PRIOR to starting the flea, avoiding this mess. Face time and showing respect goes a long way with most people.

Reading that these two guys were rolling their eyes by the end of the meeting (if in fact this is true) is pretty disrespectful to people who have been in the neighborhood and parish long before they ever moved in.

Spiny

Rfive, you idiot troll, at least one of the market's founders is a New York City native.

Honestly, of the hundreds of people I know in this city, exactly ONE is from Kansas. Cliched trolls need a new line.

Rfive

Wow! Wealthy white folks move in and expect "natives" to adhere to their standards and ways of life.

The majority of gothamist posters (not just this article) support the market.

Typical, misguided, racist idiots. Go back to Kansas to stupid fucks!

Spirit of 76

If I may make a small suggestion, after Gothamist writers read a Times article and link to it, go back to page 1 of the article before copying the link. It's not a big bother to go back to page 1 ourselves or click "single page," but along with all the grammatical, spelling and editorial mistakes, it rather makes Gothamist look like you don't really care about your readers.

blablanyc

My favorite flea market of all time is the one in Englishtown, NJ. Before the rail yards installed high tech surveillance cameras in the 1990s, you'd be able to get some great deals.

Jen Chung

The religious folks were mentioned in yesterday's post, too. But, yes, many church parishioners oppose the flea market, as do some other residents (the first complaint mentioned in the Times is how one guy can't get his Sunday coffee!).