The Columbus Avenue crafts fair should get a permit to operate four weekends a year, a community board committee decided on Thursday night, reversing its prior decision to recommend that the fair be shut down altogether.
Until this May, the crafts fair had opened six times a year on Columbus from 77th to 81st street. But neighbors had complained about crowding in the area, and the fact that the farmer’s market on that block had to move when the fair was going on.
A recent backlash against that decision forced the committee to reconsider.
If the full community board agrees, the parks department can put out a call for bids to operate the fair.
What is crueler?
(A) Bankrupting craftsmen immediately?
(B) Water drip torture?
Good stuff, and kudos to those who started/signed the petition.
Nice work to those who campaigned to keep the Crafts Fair alive. But CB7 should be ashamed of themselves for attempting to kill it in the first place. They should PROMOTING the Upper West Side, not trying to put it to sleep.
Can we get some NAMES of the folks who rallied to kill this very nice community fair?
Where is the CB on really true important issues? – like demanding the immediate shut down of the homeless shelters with hundreds of beds in our community.
The Columbus Avenue Business Improvement District, whose board includes business owners and real estate owners, was one of the groups that wanted to curb the crafts fair because it competes with local businesses.
Avi
Thank you Avi.
If that is so, that is truly ridiculous,
1. the fair does not compete with the stores, it compliments them.
2. it brings more shoppers to the area – particularly for restaurants.
3. why would the BID (which I normally support) be against the fair.
4. What really hurts local businesses are the tube sock / fried sausage fests. – they block the storefronts and/or make them the backend of the blocked street.
5. something does not pass the smell test.
Thanks for the information Avi. That’s the first notice I’ve seen as to which group was responsible for shuttering the Crafts Fair on Columbus. Do you know which local businesses or real estate firms were involved and which businesses were identified as affected by competition from the Crafts Fair vendors? Which jewelry stores or clothing stores? Is there a public record of the store names? Thanks.
So a few people get inconvenienced . . . not enough room for double and triple wide strollers is more likely the issue! So cross to the other side of the street for three weekends in May and October and let these people earn a damn living!!! The rest of us put up with those strollers every day all year long.
All for the continuance of the fairs on all the usual weekends.
BUT
where was it ever reported the complaint was from stroller pushers (i.e . parents) ?
Again, that is just another version of class warfare.
– blame the landlords, the investment bankers, the hipsters, the arrivestes, the condo buyers, etc.
Do not assume they are the ones objected.
If you forced me to speculate, I would point the finger at rent controlled childless left wing extremists busy bodies , who ignore heroin addict panhandlers on every block but are up in arms when an entrepreneur wants to serve alcohol in a new restaurant.
But, I will not speculate……
This is the best craft show in town. Not just for expensive successful artists who can make money at the Lincoln Center show–but new and unusual talent. Makes it a lot more fun and more local artists show.
“Crafts” Fair? JUNK Fair is more like it. This hideous collection of crap (and that is what it is) is a HUGE annoyance. The useful farmer’s market gets displaced to the school yard, many vendors don’t bother coming on these weekends. It creates much more traffic than the regular farmer’s market.