The South Street Seaport's flag has been on the rise recently, despite whatever that smell is, and it only seems to be climbing higher. Last week, Council Speaker Christine Quinn talked about the future of the former site of the Fulton Fish Market at a press conference, likening it to the Pike Place Market in Seattle: "That is kind of an image of what we could have here...And just so folks know, Pike Place Market in Seattle has 8 to 10 million visitors a year. Think of how many we could have in New York." more ›

Robert LaValva, a former city planner-turned-founder of New Amsterdam Market, has been working four years to establish a food destination that will reconnect modern, regional agriculture to the civic tradition of the city’s bygone markets. One of the group’s underlying ideas is that an integrated market can be fundamentally different than a greenmarket; that is, a market fosters closer connections between farmers and bakers, or butchers and cheesemongers, for example, and drives down prices, creating a public space and a revitalized food community in the process. more ›

Aside from the concerts, there isn't much reason to go to the Southstreet Seaport unless you're 14 and need to hit Abercrombie & Fitch. The NY Sun reports that General Growth Properties, the developer who owns the rights to the area (the Seaport and Fulton Fish Market), is on a mission to turn that all around; but is their mission misguided? With a commercial and residential project that promises a floating pool and a community center...it also looks to bring in more stores! The big retail names are mostly big bucks shops: Harrods, Harvey Nichols and Barneys New York. Though Target is also rumored to be interested. more ›

This evening, there was a two-alarm fire at the Hunts Point Market in the Bronx. Hunts Point Cooperative Market, the "Largest Food Distribution Center in the World," is where many meat and meat products are processed and distributed in the tri-state area. more ›

MUSIC: Come enjoy the Whitney after dark tonight as the museum's live showcase series invites Dan Deacon (pictured) to the stage. If you haven't seen Deacon before, get ready for some Casio keyboard electro-rock compositions and an art dance party. more ›

New Amsterdam Public’s Jill Slater and Robert LaValva have organized a one-day test run of a public market at the old Fulton Fish space. Called the Wintermarket, the event is part of the non-profit group’s proposal to create a dedicated market in the Seaport space, which these days makes so much sense that it almost hurts, what with everyone talking about grass-fed this and raw milk that. The concept of sustainable food has no value... more ›

In 1656, Peter Stuyvesant proposed the creation of a public market for the city. As New York has changed, several marketplaces have existed, each creating a community hub as well as access to fresh food. Establishing a permanent home for a new market with breads, handmade cheeses, locally grown produce, fish, and meat is the goal of Robert LaValva and Jill Slater, the founders of New Amsterdam Public. LaValva and Slater seek to revitalize a... more ›

READING: Elizabeth Edwards, wife of Presidential candidate John Edwards, will have the spotlight on her for the night as she reads from her memoir, Saving Graces. The tale of her teenage son's death and her current battle with cancer may have you grabbing for a box of tissues (and voting for her hubby?). more ›

Almost two years after the Fulton Fish Market relocated to Hunts Point, a new book documents the market of days gone by. South Street, published by Columbia University Press, is a collection of photographs by Barbara G. Mensch, who began taking pictures of the fish market when she first moved to a nearby loft in 1979. more ›

You've got to stop whatever you are doing and check out the urban exploration galleries at Netherworld Online. We don't know who these guys are, but they've assembled an amazing gallery of over 2000 images-- and it's top-notch breaking-an-entering type stuff. For instance, the footage from inside the new World Trade Center #7, taken over the summer-- check out the guy sitting in the bottom right corner of the photo above. Don't stop there, though-- check out these: subway explorations, St. John the Divine, Pepsi Plant, Fulton Fish Market, Red Hook Grain Terminal, Hell Gate Bridge. There's tons more-- we've spent hours in this gallery already, and we still haven't seen it all. more ›

It looks like the Drawing Center will actually get an extreme downtown space. The Drawing Center is in talks to build a space where the Fulton Fish Market once was. The deal, as reported by the NY Times, is "far from a done deal," but Gothamist supposes being on the other side of the lower tip of Manhattan is far enough from the World Trader Center not to "denigrate" it. The South Street space would be twice the size of the Drawing Center's current Wooster Street gallery, but about two-thirds the size of the original, World Trade Center site design. Downtown officials are pleased with the match, and so are we - sometimes it feels too commercial (shock!) at the Seaport - this will be a good injection of culture. We just suggest that the first exhibit planned there be drawings of the fish trade over time! more ›

After numerous delays, including a lawsuit, the Hunts Point Fish Market finally opened yesterday. The 430,000 square foot, $85 million facility was met with praise from some, while others knitpicked about some details (aww, too cold!). Mayor Bloomberg claimed that Hunts Point would bring $1 billion in economic activity a year in The Bronx, but some fishmongers said that business was down 40% on the first day. There is some concern about the shared costs, which include electricity, snow removal and security. more ›

We feel like it's been decades since we first wrote about the Fulton Fish Market moving. And since then the move has been hit by problem after problem after problem. But now that is all over. Amidst much media attention the Market had it's final day after nearly 185 years on Thursday. It is now being rushed up to it's new giant indoor facilities in the Bronx so as to open up for business there Monday morning. There are a few photos of the last night on flickr, anyone see them moving today? more ›

There will be a place for the fishes to sleep, as the Fulton Fish Market will finally be able to move to its new Hunts Point facility in the Bronx. The fish vendors and the company that would unload the fish (yes, these are all discrete jobs) have settled after various court entanglements. Laro had been tasked by the Giuliani administration to head all fish unloading for the market, to ensure that it wouldn't be a mob activity magnet. Therefore, when the fish made plans for a move to the Bronx without Laro, Laro complained and stalled the long awaited move for weeks. The new deal now has Laro working at the Hunts Point facility for three years, and then the market's vendors can decide if they want to keep Laro or go with a new company. And this is a big deal: NY1 reports that Laro will make millions by being the sole loading company. more ›

A judge has delayed the Fulton Fish Market from moving to the Hunts Point facility in the Bronx because of concerns that the mob might work its way back into facility. In 1995, NYC created law that, as the Post puts it, "set up a restrictive system of bidding and vetting designed to keep mobbed-up wholesalers from extorting payments from the fish-truckers for the timely unloading of their highly perishable goods." For the new market, wholesalers had wanted to do their own unloading, but Laro Service Systems, who had been unloading at the fish market since 1995, filed a lawsuit. The New Fulton Fish Market Cooperative (Cooperative! that sounds so socialist and not mobbed up in anyway!) will file an appeal, as they complain the delay will cost them tens of thousands dollars a week, as they have to maintain an empty Bronx market. more ›

- A judge is delaying the Fulton Fish Market's move to the Bronx, which means a delay of at least three weeks more ›

Remember when the Fulton Fish Market was going to move to the Bronx in June? And then yesterday? Yeah, that didn't happen. more ›

- And Gothamist would really like some panda bears to come to a New York zoo and have panda cubs; this is a picture of the DC panda cub, who National zookeepers are in awe of (also, we watched Julie Chen interview the National Zoo's assistant curator Lisa Stevens, holding the panda in this picture, and we wondered, "Is Julie Chen doing the panda segment 'cause she's Chinese?".. and Jack Black will be doing the voice of "Kung Fu Panda," the new animated film; Black isn't Chinese, but he is tubby) more ›

Yesterday, the City announced the official $150 million East River redevelopment plan. The 2 mile esplanade will connect East River and Battery Parks, and have a new "waterfront esplanade with new plantings, benches, tables, repaving, improved lighting and a widened bike path," community space at Pier 15, commercial and cultural pavilions along South Street, new park and open spaces and a new public plaza in front of the Battery Maritime Building; the Fulton Fish Market will be razed, in order to be a pleasure marina. The money comes from Lower Manhattan Development Corporation funds, to provide, as new LMDC president Stefan Pryor said, "year-round recreational oasis for Lower Manhattan families." However, the money for the Battery Maritime Building part, about $65 million, has yet to be secured. Nor is there a timetable yet. Nonetheless, there's a lot of bipartisan enthusiasm for the plan: Democratic City Councilwoman Margarita Lopez, whose district includes the Lower East Side, said about Mayor Bloomberg, "People, this is why I love this man!" more ›

Old New York institutions are, of course, always moving, changing and getting run over; it's the nature of the city to be constantly abandoning its past. Nonetheless, the fact that the odor-iffic old-school Fulton Fish Market will be leaving Lower Manhattan in June seems a major shift. more ›

[ more ›

We found this NY1 story about Fulton Fish Market purveyors donating fish to the homeless really great. The fish are all fresh (one purveyor says, "The sea provides so much product sometimes you can’t sell it all"), and they are donated to 12 food pantries in the city. A few different agencies to donate your time or money: City Harvest, New York City Rescue Mission, and NY Cares. You can also find volunteer positions via Volunteer Match.
more ›

And the week in full. more ›