We’ve got five years, what a surprise

NYT has a must-read on the Moore Street Market aka La Marqueta de Williamsburg:

A year and a half after the city proposed closing this Depression-era public market on the eastern edge of Williamsburg, Brooklyn, to make way for rental housing, the market’s scrappy vendors are on the verge of signing a five-year lease (with an option for five more if things go well).

“I’m happier than a dog with two tails,” said Virgilio Rodriguez, the head of the vendors’ association. “They wanted to throw us out. Now we have a place that will give us life. This is our past, our present and our future.”

Manuel Rivera, a silver-haired record seller known as Papo, has been in the thick of the fight with the city. He was happily dazed as he merrily mixed metaphors.

“This is an accomplishment,” he said. “We were dealing with monsters, millionaires. And now the little fish ate the big fish.”

The Market has been a “cultural mecca” in Williamsburg for more than 65 years.

Previously, the NYC Economic Development Corporation had wanted to shutter the market and in their stead build more real estate developments.

The story behind La Marqueta, and the NYCEDC’s attempts at closing it, has been covered on GBK since February 2007 — here and here.

Photo: John Marshall Mantel for The New York Times

H/t: North Brooklyn’s new Neighborhood Watch blog by Neighbors Allied for Good Growth

Tags: La Marqueta de Williamsburg, Moore Street Market, Neighbors Allied for Good Growth, NYC Economic Development Corporation, NYT, Virgilio Rodriguez, Williamsburg

Category: Community Action, Culture

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