Stylish Times at The Flea
We’re not having the best of the luck with the weather at The Flea, but luckily we’re more than making up for it with media coverage. (To be fair, it hasn’t actually rained yet, but it’s come pretty darn close both Sundays to date.) The Sunday Styles section of The Times devoted its cover yesterday…
We’re not having the best of the luck with the weather at The Flea, but luckily we’re more than making up for it with media coverage. (To be fair, it hasn’t actually rained yet, but it’s come pretty darn close both Sundays to date.) The Sunday Styles section of The Times devoted its cover yesterday to photographs of a number of vendors who were on hand for opening day. (The story was even on the NYT home page for a while.) Here’s an except from one of the slideshows narrated by Time scribe Guy Trebay:
The mix of the people you saw at the Brooklyn Flea was really the best part of it. It was very race-mixed, gender-mixed, age-mixed. It was very family, but in the larger sense of the New York family. It just had a very Brooklyn vibe in general.
Another big crowd turned out yesterday, along with a mix of vendors that included a number of new antiques and vintage sellers. Another bunch of vendors who used to be at the Chelsea flea market start next week. Hopefully they’ll bring some sunshine with them!
Scavengers on the Urban Savannah [NY Times]
Photos from DJ $mall Change‘s Flickr Set
3:50 & 3:51….i hate to say this, because you are somewhat correct in certain aspects of your comment, BUT…those neighborhoods were largely white before they became black. Everybody commenting on this site twists and turns the facts to suit their own agenda.
I understand your point about MORE RECENT HISTORY…yes, most of those black families were homeowners. This process, call it want you want, happens everywhere all over the world and is accelerated in speed and price during good economic times.
However, a flea market is just a flea market. I’m sure if any remaining Kanarsee Indians were around, they’d be welcome at the flea market.
um, 2:20, maybe next time someone will post one picture of a Black person, one Asian, one Latino, and one white, and you’ll think that means that statistically, 25% of the people in attendance were Black, 25% Asian, 25% Latino, and 25% White.
“See? The four pictures prove it was super, duper diverse! So shut up all you reverse-racists,” you’ll say.
The guy in the yellow is Black, but he loses 25% in Black points for being a wannabee hipster. So only 75% of him counts toward the official Black count. I take my Black self all over Pennsylvania and Maryland attending flea markets. Sometimes I am the only Black person there and sometimes not. Sometimes I buy from Black vendors, most of the time not. I really don’t care one way or the other.
god, you just don’t get it…
clinton hill (and bed-stuy, and harlem and fort greene before it) was a community of black folk–with a hell of a lot of brownstone OWNERS, not just a bunch of ghetto poor criminals like so many people think who worked HARD to turn the neighborhood around. we saw a hard time, but we worked to make it better. (or should i say, our parents.) we got more and more streets landmarked, as the economy got better and we were all doing better, we put that money into our neighborhood. then what happened? suddenly, a bunch of white folk heard crime was down and noticed how beautiful our homes were and said, hmmm… let me get a piece of that! and they went and paid asinine prices for homes that were offered way too high by the (stupid, not-forward-thinking—but how could you ever blame them??) owners ready to cut and run. and our hard work benefitted THEM. benefitted YOU. now our children can’t even afford to live here anymore. unless we own (and by we i mean black folks who aren’t already millionaires), we sure as hell can’t afford to live here. so what happened then? the same thing that always happens: the affluent (and predominantly white) folks take over, african american history is stripped, and the less affluent (and i don’t even mean poor–mean not rich) and mostly black folks get pushed farther and farther and farther to the margins… again. I.E., gentrification.
the booklyn flea market is just another totally obvious symbol of that. and all of you here, saying, “black people can come if they want” and “what responsibility do the organizers have?” it’s about ETHICS. and HISTORY. AND COMMUNITY. either you’re really ignorant and clueless, or you’re so unethical and unkind that you should be ashamed of yourselves.
think of it this way: would you set up a flea market on historically significant Indian lands and just ignore Indian culture, people, and their contribution to the very land you’re using and benefitting from?
Probably.
It is pretty clear to me that most of the negative posters are just trolling.
And 1:01 – I don’t know what Flea market you were at. Given your lack of perception of the joke I was setting up by describing both my and my bf’s race [interesting racial blindness on your part to only see one description as significant], you either are clueless, have a chip on your shoulder, or are actually sitting in Akron Ohio.
Again it was a FLEA MARKET. Get a life.
I would love to see Dave’s picture, however I just ate can it wait till tomorrow.
Great and detailed post 2:15. Anyone who thinks a flea market doesn’t evolve, hasn’t a clue about them. The dollars control what sells. It’s simple and green is the same whether it comes from Asian, white, black or Latino. Vendors don’t care. From a racial perspective, it’s more important that non-white vendors make money and get their opinion of the value of the flea market. If white vendors make money off of black customers someone will cry, racism. What do you say when black vendors make money off of white customers? It’s not a racial thing, it’s a flea market.
I agree with everyone but Dave.
agree with Rehab
it will never please all of the people all of the time….its two weeks old for god’s sake…it will get better
i don’t understand the race comments except the ones that were obviously facetious..they are just thrown up to bate the people who don’t understand why they were thrown up