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.
Wasder-
I don’t think Rehab’s “great start” was “marred” at all.
“”your lavish, tax-exempt palace of superstition, corruption, and intolerance”” is DEAD ON.
Truth hurts.
ONLY a Church would come up with this hogwash.
Religion is why the world is in the state its in. This Flea thing is a microcosm.
Rehab–this was genius:
“In these times of economic upheaval and uncertainty, along comes a lovely little business that’s so instantly successful and popular, real-estate agents like Coldwell Banker are mentioning it as an amenity in local listings, and businesses like Tillie’s and Chez Oskar have lines out the door. In a time when the environment is finally getting some attention, here’s a resource for re-using people’s castoffs instead of throwing them in landfills. In a city where race relations and class war are a constant oozing sore, here’s an event to which all are welcome and to which all types are coming and hanging out together, with merch for all tastes and income levels, yummy international food, and fun for the kids and oldsters alike. And it provides jobs to Brooklynites.”
And this was unnecessarily harsh and combative: “your lavish, tax-exempt palace of superstition, corruption, and intolerance”
great start marred by a reactionary finish….
Brownstoner:
On a Saturday’s visit to see Park Slope members of my family, I had a nice turn through the big farmers market at Grand Army Plaza. A few doors away on Eastern Parkway stands (anti-Semites, hold your breath!) a large synagogue. And although the area is now called Prospect Heights, when I grew up in the vicinity during the 1950’s, Eastern Parkway all the way to Grand Army Plaza was considered Crown Heights. So the Queen of All Saints Church member who complained that something like the Flea would never happen near a synagogue in Crown Heights can be refuted.
Deeply held Christian suspicions aside (and I write as the off-spring of two very old Protestant and Catholic families who’s always shocked by my brethren’s antipathies), QAS parishners may have some valid points regarding traffic, crowding, and inappropriate use of their facilities. These probably aren’t too hard to address and once they are may help lower critics’ temperatures.
But Flea promoters should dig deeper, too. It sounds like the critics are old-timers who lived in CH/FG when times were tough and their neighborhoods were largely ignored except by institutions like QAS. They feel — reasonably –under seige. How to build community with them is a big and important challenge. And race, class and age are going to be high hurdles. (Sorry, newcomers, you didn’t experience how bad things were in this town in the 60’s and 70’s or the abuse, either through urban renewal or “planned shrinkage,” that Brownstone Brooklyn suffered. There’s a good book by a Columbia psychiatrist, Fullilove, called “Root Shock” that analyzes the psychological trauma of uncontrolled neighborhood change and displacement. My guess is that the QAS parishners are undergoing something similar in anticipation of such change. They don’t have to see bulldozers. The designer t-shirts are probably enough.)
Nostalgic on Park Avenue
This whole kerfuffle is beyond stupid. And it has nothing to do with religion or race, as much as the Times and (especially) that POS story in the Daily News, written by a so-called reporter who wasn’t even inside the meeting, would suggest.
In these times of economic upheaval and uncertainty, along comes a lovely little business that’s so instantly successful and popular, real-estate agents like Coldwell Banker are mentioning it as an amenity in local listings, and businesses like Tillie’s and Chez Oskar have lines out the door. In a time when the environment is finally getting some attention, here’s a resource for re-using people’s castoffs instead of throwing them in landfills. In a city where race relations and class war are a constant oozing sore, here’s an event to which all are welcome and to which all types are coming and hanging out together, with merch for all tastes and income levels, yummy international food, and fun for the kids and oldsters alike. And it provides jobs to Brooklynites.
I live in Clinton Hill. I go to the Flea every week. Then, I go to work on Monday afterwards and walk past the schoolyard. There is not so much as a gum wrapper on the ground. These guys are doing an amazing job, they’ve brought an exciting new “happening” to our neighborhood, and I, for one, am grateful for it. Jon and Eric deserve a medal, not this kind of crap. The Flea will continue.
Meanwhile, the tiny minority represented by All Saints Church is being selfish and ridiculously short-sighted. Again: Put a sign in front of your lavish, tax-exempt palace of superstition, corruption, and intolerance, offer a string quartet or lemonade or holy water or something, and try to sucker a few new members into the cult—it’s a golden opportunity. (Maybe there still are some parents who will allow their children into a Catholic church—although why, I can’t imagine.) The Monsignor and co. owe the community an apology.
Sorry, bxgrl, but I know for an absolute fact that Jonathan and Eric have known for a over a week exactly what the community complaints are. And during that time, the pair have done relatively little to resolve the concerns that can be addressed (as opposed to blasphemy, racism and whatever). They did do a nice job rallying the support of elected officials, other neighborhood leaders and vendors, however. I don’t know what the guys have done purposefully or not, but I can look at the Brooklyn Flea weblog and see a missed opportunity.
I’d like to add something with regard to jon and eric not publicizing this. I was at the meeting and within the first 10 minutes the monsignor expressed regret that there were so many supporters there as he had hoped that it would only be a forum for grievances. When I asked Jon after the meeting what that meant, he said that they had been asked to not publicize it and that the monsignor had been upset that the press even knew about it. The Church didn’t want anyone but their 15 or so complainants and their inner circle. it was not a “community” thing as some of the more heated and wildly inappropriate comments insisted. It was one tiny part of a large and diverse community and they did not want the rest of the community there, for fear that it would be revealed that a majority of those living nearby have no problem with the flea, and in fact, enjoy it. It was so sad to see that the church people weren’t listening to eric and jon’s repeated attempts to explain measures they’d already taken and measures they will install – the next person would stand up and hold forth completely disregarding everything that had been said. it was frustrating and frankly, just stupid. they weren’t interested in a solution. There was also no attempt at goodwill towards those of us who supported the flea, but were trying to be friendly and get to know our neighbors. They just looked at us like we were evil aliens and were rude to us as they held forth about “disrespect”. One exception was miss florence, who was against the flea and continues to be for religious reasons, but was a joy to speak with and get to know. The monsignor, at the close of the evening, thanked everyone for being there and welcomed all guests to return for services. The way his parishioners conducted themselves that night made me certain that I will not return there and made me sad for the state of the “faithful” who can’t seem to channel the true messages of their faith.
“Leticia James is irrelevant”
So true, it wasn’t until good old Marty Markowitz stepped in that we got any help from the police force to help curb the summertime crime wave.
I will not forget the “Better take some self defense classes” comment she made.
Sorry, that’s off topic.
I tell you this though, I’m going to protest that next church bake sale!!!! HA!
Don’t worry – Leticia James is irrelevant.
rarely posts- if you read what I posted yesterday at 5:15, it kind of explains what’s been happening. Jon and eric really had no idea about the meetings in other than a grapeviney way before Velmanette Montgomery came to speak to them last week. Both yo and g-man are jumping the gun here in assuming they purposefully didn’t post about the problems for some hazy, we don’t care reason. And as you said, you emailed him about the second meeting at the last minute. At that point neither he nor Eric were really sure what the problem was (I’d been in touch with them by email too, you’re not the only one), and rather than assume anything or as Jon said, fan the flames, they chose to attend a meeting and see what the deal was. I don’t find that unreasonable at all.
If anything was unreasonable, it was the church calling meetings behind their backs and trying to get the flea shut down without even speaking to them. It’s obvious the church really doesn’t care about the whole community. If it did, it would have made an effort to let them know they were unhappy before trying to get the big guns in.