Closing Bell: Brooklyn Flea + Urban Arts Festival
It’s been a busy week behind the scenes at The Flea, what with last night’s community meeting and all. The meeting was conceived as a listening session for neighborhood concerns but word leaked out and a number of supporters showed up and it ended up feeling more like a referendum on the market. For a…
It’s been a busy week behind the scenes at The Flea, what with last night’s community meeting and all. The meeting was conceived as a listening session for neighborhood concerns but word leaked out and a number of supporters showed up and it ended up feeling more like a referendum on the market. For a couple of longer reports, you can check out Racked, Gawker or Reclaimed Home. Senator Velmanette Montgomery, Councilmember James and Borough Prez Marty Markowitz by proxy all stepped up to the plate on behalf of the Flea; the suggestions ranged from the incremental and addressable to the not-so-reasonable and deal-breaking. There’s a big NY Times story about it slated for this weekend, so keep your eyes out. The two themes we (and others) kept coming back to were community-building and the importance of nurturing small businesses. Along those lines, we hope that everyone who comes out to the Flea this weekend will also make it over to nearby Myrtle Avenue between Emerson and Grand where the first day of the Brooklyn Urban Arts Market will take place; the four other days are August 10, August 24, September 7 and September 21. The open-air market will feature live music, visual art performances, food from Myrtle restaurants, and about 50 local, primarily home-based artisans, vendors, and entrepreneurs selling fashion, art, accessories and more. The event runs from 12 to 7. First timers attending the flea may want to check out the Flea Blog first and get these essentials under their belt: Flea hours are from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Sunday; it’s located at 176 Lafayette Avenue in Brooklyn. Closest trains are the C and G to Washington/Clinton. Or you can take any of the number of trains that go to Atlantic Station and make the 10-minute stroll up Lafayette Avenue from there.
Update: The New York Times article, by a reporter who took the time to sit down with us and was smart enough not to get himself kicked out of the community meeting, is here; a Daily News article by a “reporter” who was stuck chewing his cud outside the meeting is here. The most amazing part of the News article is the cherry-picked quote from Councilmember James that gives the impression that she’s against the market when she has championed it from the beginning. Some quality journalism.
Heather – thats called a bribe.
I was wondering how this went from 88 to 134 posts in 75 minutes.
Fsrq- not sure which blog you’re reading but brownstoner hardly opposes every new project and opposition to the destruction of beautiful architecture and long standing communities is hardly the same thing as being opposed to something that enhances the community and the economy for a broad range of people. And the name of the blog is brownstoner, not brooklyncondo.com. Most people on this blog are not opposed to change, but they are opposed to seeing developers build whatever over priced pos they want and destroy wonderful architecture, and put local small buisnesses out to do it.
Heather, it is kind of a shame but on the other hand, if parishioners themselves can’t intelligently self-edit their comments, they leave themselves open to being quoted for their most stupid comments.
The anti-semitic comments got so much more play because 1. it’s ugly, 2. it wasn’t necessary to the Flea issue in the first place, and 3. the pastor neither took a stand on that type of commentary being allowed in the Church, nor apologized for it.
And from what I’ve read, the press isn’t the group reducing the whole thing to that one issue. It’s people who are responding to those comments because that sort of religious nonsense is the last thing this country needs more of. Maybe the church accept the fact that had they acted like concerned members of the community and been honest enough to voice their concerns in a civilized way, they wouldn’t be in this position.
By the way, that doesn’t mean I think their demands or complaints are all that reasonable, because I don’t. I just think they have the right to make them. It’s also kind of a shame that the entire thing is getting reduced to an “anti-semetic” soundbyte by the media, because there are a lot more factors at stake here.
There is a certain irony, that a blogger who seems to constantly railing against change of almost any sort, is now the subject of an attack that when you clear all the hyperbole is essentially one against change.
I hope that ‘stoners (and the head stoner himself) recall this (unfair) knee-jerk opposition the next time they decide to launch their blanket opposition to the next project (real estate or otherwise) that they are convinced will “destroy the neighborhood”
What’s the relationship between Bishop McClaughlan high school and Queen of All Saints School? Do they compete for the same students? (I thought Queen of All Saints only went to 8th grade, but I might be wrong.) In any event, Mr. B, have you tried some kind of gesture, like giving them a day’s proceeds once a month for Queen of All Saint’s School? Or trying to incorporate some kind of incentive that will also benefit them?
Both institutions are part of the community and therefore deserve to be respected — and it’s a great testament to the strength of the community of FG/CH that the flea market helps a local parochial school… but it seems to me that the best way to resolve this would be to offer Queen of All Saints some kind of concession and try to get them involved as well.
If they’d go along with it.
Awww that’s OK, NOP. I still think you’re the bees knees and the cat’s meow.
(fabulous picture Jon. Offer it as a poster- judging by the reaction here you’ll sell out the edition!)
NOP:
The term “fox” became a term of endearment ( with no gay connotations) in the 70s. Being used in 2008, it could be considered a “retro” term. Things do work in cycles, even language.
So, it looks like not only are you out of touch with 2008 urban lingo, but you seemed to have missed the 70s as well.
Bloggers:
Gee, the way some of you are going on about Brownstoner, maybe Obama should choose him for Veep.
But since when has “fox” been an acceptable word to apply to men?
Back in the homophobic 50’s in Crown Heights, if you wanted to get into a scrape with another boy in PS 138’s school yard, you called him a “fox,” which was only to be applied to pretty girls (or, I’m ashamed to say now, boys who we thought acted like girls).
And the very worst thing to call a boy was “stone cold fox,” which was the highest praise go give a girl.
Things were definitely different back in the day — although I’m happy to see “fox” purloined and given new meaning.
NOP