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The Times stepped out on Sunday to gauge public reaction to the ubiquitous street fairs that turn various city blocks into a banal mob scene every damn weekend. Perhaps the best quote comes from awestruck Midwesterner Stephen Pijanowski, who loves street fairs so much he went to two over the weekend, explaining, "We have nothing like this in Chicago." On the other hand, New Yorker Javier Ortiz, on his way to brunch, declared the street fair to be "just in our way."
Last month Mayor Bloomberg trash talked street fairs in a town hall meeting, saying, "We have too many street fairs. Street fairs supposedly help communities by giving a lot of money. I don't think you can ever find a dime that they ever got from them. They're supposed to do unique things. They're all the same." There are 331 street fairs scheduled this year, down from 357 in 2007 and 369 in 2006.
According to the Post, the subject came up when Bloomberg was asked why the Summer Streets closures last August took place on Saturdays and not Sundays. (He explained that street fairs tend to occupy a lot of pavement on Sundays.) But the mayor seems reluctant to take action because he can "only fight so many battles." Also, the city collects 20 percent of vendors' fees for street festivals, which last year came to $1.6 million.
The Center for an Urban Future's 2006 report on street fairs said that the majority of street fairs are produced by three companies—and that it's difficult for smaller businesses/vendors to participate.
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The typical street fair is garbage, but those that involve the local community and businesses like the Atlantic Antic are a benefit to the community. We need more of those and less of the tube socks every block street fair.
Real New Yorkers despise the street fairs. What will you see at the next street fair? Let me guess, refrigerator magnets, t-shirts, corn on the cob on a stick and arepa with mozzarella. Oh yeah, don't forget all the low lifes wandering around like zombies while they dig in to that fair food.
No one goes to street fairs anymore, they're too damn crowded.
the socks they sell at the fairs are complete shite. holes in no time.
The street fairs would be more enjoyable if they would replace the redundant vendors with stands by local groups/artisans/restaurants. I love a mozzareppa every once in a while but I don't need four mozzareppa vendors in a single street fair.
I have been informed that they benefit the communities involved because they have to be sponsored by a local organization and those non-profits get paid by the number of vendors and/ or blocks involved. It has nothing to do with sales. I personally don't find them worthwhile.
chicago has hundreds of street fairs..they just don't sell the same shit like these do.
Usually they're annual and cater more to music and eating than shopping.
then there's still the neighborhood block party.
The tube socks street fairs are mostly a Manhattan phenomenon, and I agree they should be wiped out because it is literally a variation of the same five vendors (smoothie guy, sock guy, tweezers/plier guy, fake south american instrument guy, creepy aggressive Asian massage guy).
There are great local street festivals throughout Brooklyn and Queens where stores on the block, local churches and mosques, and even the Girl Scouts come out that are fantastic.
It's a simple solution. It's a well known racket for street festival permits, someone should look into that. Bloomberg?
street fairs as they are now in manhattan are a franchised blight. always the same couple of crappy cheap foreign chotchkes/greasy manufactured food. open it up to the community.
I agree - the smaller ones with independent sellers are nice. But the majority are crappy Mozzarella-pie and Sausage stands selling overpriced shwag like socks and NYC windchimes.
The Manhattan street fairs suck because of the vendors hawking crap. They are great because it is nice to travel swaths of major avenues on the peds.
The asian massage people are super aggressive, disarming people (especially good natured tourist rubes) with their smiles while physically manhandling them to force the person into accepting a massage. It literally takes an arm swipe or push to extricate from their unsolicited grabbing. Their sales technique is an assault on the person.
I agree with those who say that the street fairs which involve local merchants and the neighborhood are welcome. The Ninth Avenue Food Festival gets all the local restaurants and community groups in Hell's Kitchen, for instance. The Catholic school in my neighborhood has a little fair that is great. All the generic ones are unnecessary, though.
If there was a greater variety in the vendors, I would like them even better. How many gyros, lemonades, chotskys, sunglasses, and fried dough item stands can there by?
That said, I still voted "for" them. They're a nice diversion on the weekend. It's enjoyable being able to walk down an avenue. And as most of us are not car drivers, it doesn't affect me.
street fairs should be like the ninth ave food fest, a taste of chinatown and atlantic antic.
but communities know the score, the socks and ipod accessories brings in the money for their non profit org. either the knights of columbus or a church.
$1.6 million? That's 20 cents for every New Yorker. Here's mine: now knock this crap off, Bloomberg.
But where else will I be able to buy my shutter shades, tube socks, Jamaican Beef Patties and pan pipes all in one place?!
If the street fairs are banned, then the Summer Streets bullcrap should be banned too.
I find them pretty dull and uniform but nothing to get angry about. If people weren't spending money at these fairs, they'd disappear eventually. The people have voted with their money.
I've only been to one unique street fair. It was last year sometime on Columbus Ave. in the low 80s or so. All of the local restaurants were involved; there were quality goods being sold (no fake designer sunglasses or expensive, fake rugs sold by pushy, mean people) and I fondly remember it as the source of the best sangria I've had in my life.
I'm not annoyed, per se, by the mozzarrepa/ $1.00 Thai food ones that seem to be on a minimum of 2 major avenues at once, but I never seek them out and, on the warmer days, definitely do avoid them.
Atlantic and 5th ave (Slope) fairs are good models. Local vendors, local music etc.
Every year there is a minimum 6 street fairs in my neighborhood, which means at least 12 hours of noise and traffic. The one fair that i used to really like was the Oyster Fest that benefited one of the museums, but thanks to Rudy that had to stop. So what we are stuck with now is the same crap...watered down leon ade and yes, tube socks. And honestly, in this city, the people who run these things can't find any new or different vendors?
The street fairs in Manhattan get progressively worse. The merchandise is garbage-particularly the t shirt vendors who sell the ever so charming, "Fuck You You Fucking Fuck" shirts. These are a few of the distasteful items. When sampling food from the "authentic" Italian sausage vendor, served by someone out of Deliverance, you will note they scrape cheese out of a giant aluminum can. Shut them all down. They are a plague...
Do not lose the street fairs, just revamp them so they don't look like the same traveling carnival every time. It's great to shut the streets for people to walk around and I like the smell of sausage and corn on the cob. But there has to be a way to bring some more culture to the process. There's a street fair every year on my street and it's great even if the sock vendor sets up right in front of my building. I was just at one on Sunday on Amsterdam and it was packed.
And btw, mid-summer street fairs are a great place to check out hot chicks.
There can never be enough noisy places to buy garbage on a Manhattan street. Never.
@ TurkeyburgerDLX: I agree. The 5th Ave Fair in Park Slope, though it came with arepas and massages, also had many local vendors. All the restaurants had fair specials with cheap or free samplings of their food, and many retail shops had crazy sales. I got two shirts for $5 that would have normally retailed for $30. They also had pet adoption, a free ipod raffle, basically a lot of things to make it more exciting than tube socks.
Don't forget the 400 thread count sheets for $20.