There will be two major street fairs in the neighborhood on Sunday that were not initially on our calendar.
The Columbus Avenue Street Fair runs from 66th to 86th street today. It’s sponsored by the West Manhattan Chamber of Commerce.
Bloomingdale Family Days is set to run from 106th to 110th street on Amsterdam Avenue this Sunday and next, and will feature lots of local businesses and organizations. Next week’s event will also include a small food festival. Check out the flier below.
Does anyone agree with me that there are just a tad too many street fairs on the UWS these days?
I’m not speaking necessarily about this “Bloomingdale” fair, or even the one on Columbus Ave., which may also be independent. Rather, I’ve had a little too much of the ubiquitous “fair” produced by Mort and Ray.
What do these Mort and Ray fairs contribute to our community? Oh yes, maybe a little cash for the sponsoring organization. But they seem to me to be just another excuse to close off long swaths of our avenues, cause bus riders headaches while bringing us the same vendors, junk merchandise and junk food ad infinitum.
The same vendors each fair, selling their mostly cheap imported knock-off crap, the same food vendors offering mostly the same greasy and salty eats, the same South American musicians on almost every corner, etc., etc.!
Okay, I’ll concede that each fair may be a little different depending on the music acts performing on a “main stage” (if there is one).
Just look at what’s in store for us on the next four weekends:
Sat 9/26, 110-116 streets
Sun 10/4, 96-106 streets
Sat 10/10 110-116 streets
Sat 10/18 86-96 streets
No, I did not make a typo; I got this schedule right off the Mort and Ray website. 110 to 116 streets get a double whammy.
(I didn’t keep track of the fairs in the Spring and Summer along lower stretches of Broadway.)
Mort and Ray, synonymous these days with street fairs and other outdoor events (they’re staging the San Gennaro Feast this weekend), had very humble beginnings many years back.
In the mid 1960s, Mort Berkowitz was a young lawyer living on West 84th St. (between West End/RSD). I know this because I also lived on that block back then (my third, of four, “visit” to NYC, if you don’t count my birth on Welfare Island). I counted Mort among my friendly neighbors.
That block of of West 84th had one of the first block associations. Mort was involved and helped put on several block fairs. These were pioneering events and they helped create a community, for sure.
Fifty years later, Mort Berkowitz has obviously gone far in the street fair “business” (another of his passions is the political button business — collecting old ones and making new buttons).
I’m sure we wish him continued success. But do we really need so damn many of the identical fairs on the Upper West Side each year?
There were two Mort and Ray street fairs within 3 weekends on Broadway from 72nd to 86th streets this spring (the weekend in the middle was a breather weekend). I called their office to voice my concern. I don’t know if it was Mort or Ray who picked up the phone (there was no receptionist) and was told “this is what the neighborhood wants”. Really? I don’t recall anyone asking me as I walked on Broadway if I or anyone else thought that 2 street fairs on the same set of blocks within 3 weekends was necessary, needed, or wanted. Are Mort and Ray grandfathered into some sort of pact with the city or community board where nothing changes from year to year? Does anyone have any insight on this? Thanks.
Ever read The Suburbanization of New York? The essay on street fairs — and how the norm for a street fair has nothing to do with the local neighborhood and everything to do with lining the pockets of a few actors who get to externalize their costs on everyone else involved, especially bus riders — hits all of these points and more.
Well worth reading. These lame-ass street fairs where local businesses are hardly represented, if at all, have to be put to an end.
Got a link to that essay?
https://books.google.com/books?id=iCLSJlGfRBMC&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_ge_summary_r&cad=0#v=onepage&q&f=false
.. but it’s not the whole book, although the whole book does appear to be available on Amazon.
Thanks for the link. It references https://www.nytimes.com/2004/01/04/opinion/make-the-street-fair-less-generic.html
Answer to Question #1: Yes
Answer to Question #2: No
Polling Season, I guess.
Agree with this.
Particularly problematic on UWS this weekend as No. 1 service was disrupted for repairs and MTA was running shuttle buses – so mass transit was really impacted by street fair closure.
Also it sounds like the original street fairs were meant as community building events when the UWS was a very different place, quieter and with fewer people….
But UWS now is quite busy – and the current street “fairs” are just cheap stuff sales that block bus mass transit and create quite a lot of street trash.
Ah yes! I remember when street fairs were showcases for local artists and crafts people and antique vendors and also showed off the wares of the shops along the route. Food vendors were a novelty as well and the fairs were a wonderful introduction to our neighborhood and it’s diversity.
A far cry from the tube socks and T-shirts of today. Such a sad situation. Wish we could go back!
We could go back!
Street fairs are the worst thing about Manhattan. Lousy unhealthy food, useless products, and terrible traffic mess in the greatest city in the world. If you want a fair put it in a small side streets, not in the major avenues.
The fairs are detested by the locals.
Sorry, Naro, but the street fairs offer real $ savings on commodities like spices (we don’t order in every day), socks, underwear, hardware, sunglasses, reading glasses, etc.
Not everybody is in the 1% like you!
I appreciate the complaints voiced here but, “the worst thing about Manhattan”? Can you really not think of anything worse here than street fairs? (Feces on the streets, mentioned in recent threads, comes to mind immediately.)
Also, are you sure that New York is, “the greatest city in the world”, as you exclaimed?
How many other cities in the world have you spent time in?
Why?! Traffic is bad enough already. The businesses in the hood are already having a tough time paying for rent and staying open. The city already looks like crap and crime is rising. Why are we adding more challenges for people to get around town? Why are we taking away business from stores on one of their most potentially lucrative days of the week? Why are we adding to the garbage and dirt of the city? Why are we dedicating valuable resources like police and other first responders when the city already has a tough time keeping up with crime and 911 responses.
Corruption. That is why
gosh, it’s all junk… and it’s gyro after gyro, lemonade and corn. who needs this? it’s trashy.
That’s why I’ve ceased long ago calling them “Street Fairs”. They’re Junk Fairs.
“Crap Fairs” are the sobriquet I’ve used for nearly 20 years. But hey, at least the sock guy is employed…?
I reserve “Crap Fair” for what are called “Craft Exhibits.” Though I don’t want to put all of the Craft Exhibits in that category. The ones at Lincoln Center live up to their name.
For me, an exception to the UWS lousy street fair food is the occasional offering of “The Wandering Que Kosher Texas BBQ”. I always buy a pound of their smoked brisket (not with the sauce, but straight), and it is the best smoked beef I’ve ever had. My knees get weak from it.
Who the hell actually wears tube socks?
Didn’t those go out in the ’80s??
There were attempts to reduce street fairs but Bloomberg Administration did not wish to pursue. And over past 10 years or so, numerous other street events have been added to the NYC streetscape including corporate-sponsored events at Times Sq and Herald Sq, additional charity runs/walks/bikes etc
See links for discussion about street fair.
https://nycfuture.org/research/publications/rethinking-new-yorks-street-fairs
https://nycfuture.org/research/publications/new-visions-for-new-york-street-fairs
Regarding charity walks and runs: the people who attend walks in Central Park (how much of the proceeds really goes to research, and how much goes to administration and advertising?) think it’s ok to continue walking in the street (as opposed to walking on the sidewalk) once they leave Central Park. This becomes a hazard to cars and buses. Please by the police who ask these walkers to walk on the sidewalk are ignored. A message to these walkers: Obey the rules of our city, or don’t come back to our city. Thanks.
Bring on the dancing girls! FYI: Tube socks make a great fashion statement, especially with sandals.