A street fair on Amsterdam Avenue. Photo by Ellen Joy.
The West Manhattan Chamber ended operations this year, and that meant that two popular street fairs — ones where you could dance and even enjoy an adult beverage outside — have been cancelled. The Columbus Avenue Street Fair, which would normally have been held last week, didn’t happen. And the Amsterdam Avenue Spring Fair, another one that featured local restaurants, is also over.
The West Manhattan Chamber closed at the end of 2018, according to Andrew Albert, who was its executive director. He didn’t explain what caused the closure. Several bummed-out Upper West Siders have contacted us in recent days to bemoan the loss of he Columbus Avneue fair.
“It was one of the main draws to eat and drink at various temporary outdoor seating areas which restaurants erected on Columbus Avenue as the streets were closed to traffic,” wrote Julian Fisher. “For many years we all used to go to Prohibition to toast the end of summer whilst listening to those sweet, sweet 80s songs as performed by The Gilfords.”
It’s somewhat ironic, given that West Siders have also been complaining about the number of fairs in recent years.
Not sorry
I second that emotion.
Never understood the appeal, nor perceived the value of disrupting the neighborhood so someone could sell tube socks or corn or sausage on a stick or funnel cake in the middle of the street. Always seemed very provincial, in the bad sense.
I love this argument… What does it disrupt really, traffic? If it’s ease of driving we’re talking about, people trying to hold onto the dream of motorist rights being a priority in this city are honestly a little out of touch. Trying to cancel street fairs to prevent traffic disruption is like trying to stop bike lanes from removing parking spots. Priorities are askew when we’re trying to “make NYC great again” by eliminating community events and benefits in the name individual preference.
Love your rhetoric too. Part strawman, part scapegoat, part red herring, part scared cow, part gored ox. No one said anything about traffice, although that IS in fact a consideration.
My guess is that you do not live on that stretch of Columbus where this “community event” is held; that your Sunday morning sleep-in is NOT disrupted by the noise of the booths being set up; that you are NOT inconvenienced by the crowds blocking access to your building entrance, and that you do NOT have a disabled family member to navigate through inconsiderate, drunken louts; that you are NOT blasted out of your apartment by the smoke, and smells/stink/stench, and sounds of god-knows-what being grilled to death outside your window, and that smoke therefrom does not permeate your apartment.
My priorities would be peace, quiet, and enjoyment of my domicile. My guess is that if this ‘community event’ came and set up on the sidewalk outside your building, you’d see things a little differently.
In the meantime, small towns in Flyover Country abound with just this kind of hickapalooza. I encourage you to decamp from the UWS, and live your effin’ bliss.
Re: ” Part strawman, part scapegoat, part red herring, part scared cow, part gored ox.”
That sounds like a GREAT RECIPE ! But some questions:
1. Is it Kosher?;
2. Oven or microwave, and how long for each?;
3. Which wine goes best with this?;
4. Wouldn’t a “scared cow” have bad hormones affecting the taste of its meat? and;
5. May we substitute something for the “strawman”, as straw is hard to digest?
The Columbus Avenue Street Fair was always the one my husband and I looked forward to the most, and we were really surprised to find it wasn’t happening last Sunday. They always had some really different vendors. I hope it’s back next year.
I have been attending the Columbus Avenue street fair since I moved to the neighborhood in the mid 1980s. This fair was a big deal, and I would see friends I hadn’t seen since junior high, some of them were now professionals with booths. It’s the smaller 6 block street fairs that are a pain, especially those run by Rick and Morty, or whatever their names are. It seems they run these “fairs” every week or every other week. It’s so annoying to have a fair on the northbound side of Broadway in the West 70s one week, and then another on the southbound side the following week. Why does the Community Board think this is logical?
Oh the humanity! Where am I going to get my roasted corn and sour garlic pickles from Mr. Pickle? 🙂
Not to mention:
1. Tube Socks;
2. iPhone accessories;
3. sunglasses;
4. Magic Mops;
5. mystery meats;
etceterah, etceterahhhh……..
This is heartening news. There is hope for our neighborhood! Let’s get the street fairs down to zero, in order to foster a more livable Upper West Side.
It’s things like street fairs that make the neighborhood livable.
Street fairs are part of the fabric of New York City and part of what makes it ‘livable’. The Columbus street fair was particularly enjoyable with the live music and local restaurants. Sounds like you may be better suited for the ‘burbs.
Really I agree I like the UWS street fairs. Last year I bought the best cat eyed reading glasses 3 for $25 and people always stop to complement me. I think I have the phone number of the company though. Oh well!! Life will go on!@
Good riddance.
I’ve always liked street fairs, but I don’t consider having fewer any great loss. Over the years, they shifted from genuinely being neighborhood fairs with booths from local restaurants and stores to the same, predictable booths everywhere that had nothing to do with where the fair actually was. My enthusiasm for the fairs declined.
I agree! Plus, the vendors use portable diesel generators that are terribly polluting; they’re terrible for the environment and trigger asthma. NYC needs to ban these dirty devices.
Those two fairs were in the UWS for nearly 30 years!
Friends who had moved away from the UWS and relocated elsewhere, would make the trek back to see and reminisce with old peeps from the hood.
good riddance. and good start.
If we could get rid of the miserable, cranky people that hate street fairs, THAT would be a good start!
Good-bye Mozzareppas! We won’t miss these fairs much. Once upon a time these fairs brought in vendors with real useful products at bargain prices. Today, all these fairs attract the same vendors, selling the same (largely) crap.
The only good thing about the street fairs is that it removed vehicular traffic from parts of the neighborhood for a day.
I don’t know which street fair is what anymore because they are all the same, except for the one-block local ones, and those seem to be about blowing up ear drums and vibrating buildings until uninhabitable. May future hosts cultivate neighborly, artisan fairs that are ear-friendly to both young and old. Music and dance are wonderful when done respectfully. Riverside @ 122 is attempting something like this, this Sunday.
You’re a hoot, aren’t you?
Truly a shame. Nothing better than a $3 beer on a glorious fall afternoon listening to the Gilfords rock out. A great neighborhood event for many years.
Here, here! I’m the Julian quoted in the article. The Gilfords and local restaurants opening up outside seating made this fair different to the others. It will be missed, but not by many of the curmudgeons here who haven’t actually read the article and just get triggered whenever anyone mentions “street fair”.
“It’s somewhat ironic, given that SOME West Siders have also been complaining about the number of fairs in recent years.” Fixed it for you.
The vocal minority express their distaste for the street fairs. The reality is most of us West Siders actually enjoy them.
Now I will have to go to the New Target store to buy my socks 🙁
How much irregular underwear can one possibly need?
Curious what’s to dislike about street fairs, and why they make for a less ‘livable’ neighborhood. UWS feels like a ghost town compared to neighborhoods of similar population.
I don’t rage against street fairs but at least the ones up by 96th street are boring. There seems to be very limited local participation versus a bunch of places to buy cheap iPhone cases. They aren’t interesting in any way. If they vanished entirely I don’t think anyone would miss them so why bother junking up the streets and getting in the way.
Best street fair all year was the Columbus Ave street fair with amazing music at Prohibition and the opportunity to bump into friends who have been away all summer…I was so bummed out when I saw they went out of business. Big loss for the UWS.
All this means is that a couple of GOOD street fairs are gone. You’re still going to get all the funnel cakes you can stomach and then some.
I won’t miss the sound of generators running the entire day outside my window for the inflatable slides & rides for the kids, or the early morning metal-on-metal sounds of kiosks being set up. They should have swapped locations of vendors every other year so the generators weren’t always at the same spot.
The best part was Prohibition and rocking out to the Gilfords while drinking beer outside in the sun.
Here, here! My point exactly
Good riddance
Street fairs need to be reimagined.
KEEP: the local restaurants serving food outside.
DITCH: the vendors of crap products and food and anything that requires gas generators.
ADD: Tables for local businesses and organizations. A neighborhood street fair should be about connecting you to your neighbors and neighborhood.
These fairs are so 20th Century! Just a lot of noise and smells. The best feature was the local restaurants which set up food stands. Perhaps, going forward, these fairs could be reinvented to concentrate on local businesses.
Your self-assigned alias is SO apt—but you might want to change it to: “How Soon We Forget”!
“Street fairs are so 20th century”—are they indeed? That sounds to some of us like a major recommendation, given a lot of what’s happened to the UWS!
Lots of sour folks.
NYers are so sick and tired of the boring and entirely commercial fairs. They have become a nuisance and nothing more.
Speak for yourself.
I don’t know why people complain about street fairs. They are fun to walk through, see your neighbors, buy stuff that isn’t from the big box stores that have invaded Broadway, and eat corn and junk food. If you don’t like them, stay at home or go to your country house. Real Upper West Siders like our colorful, loud, neighborhood. What makes me sad is that there isn’t anyone around willing to take over these institutions when us old folks can’t do it anymore.
The West Manhattan Chamber street fairs were self produced and the ones with different and interesting booths compared to the other vendor created fairs. And for 30 years, they raised more money than any other fairs for other non-profits servicing the west side than any other fairs here. We have lost the best of all the street fairs from the West Side.
The Columbus Ave. fair has a long tradition. When I was in HS I used to know there was a fair going on because I would hear a bagpiper playing in the street as it started. Magical.
I’d like the fair to return but be more distinctive and reflective of the neighborhood. I like the idea another commenter had of local stores being featured. It would also be great if it could feature the venders who show up for the ice cream day at IS 44 court (always so popular and crowded). And maybe organizers could set up a stage around the AMNH grounds (so it wouldn’t block stores or apt. doorways) and invite young performers from Julliard and LaGuardia HS.. This has always been a very artsy neighborhood – why not celebrate it?
The street fairs have turned from an anticipated emporium of trinkets and fast food treats to a very diminished version of same. It is a nuisance at best. Good bye
I think having a few street fairs per year is fine. However, there seem to be way too many. And this summer one of them was on Amsterdam on a weekend when the 1 trains weren’t running, which was a horrible idea since it made it difficult for buses to run when they were needed most.
The Amsterdam Street Fair was absolutely awful. No amount of token local restaurant participation could change the fact that it was overwhelmingly mediocre, uninspired and downright inconvenient.
It would be another matter if it were well curated across the board, smaller scale, and free of generators and commodities.
Bah Humbug all you naysayers!It’s the UWS not the burbs. Street fairs add some color to our increasingly bland neighborhoods.
For those who want the local flavor, come up to the Annual Bloomingdale Family Days/Weekend Walks. That’s this Sunday (the 22nd). Bands, food, fun! https://columbusamsterdambid.org
AND, join the Community Board and Streetopia UWS on Saturday (the 21st) at our first Celebrate Broadway. Loads of kids activities and seating and performances. 11AM-6PM on the north side of Broadway from 73rd to 76th.
Prohibition is doing a party Sunday in place of the normal street fair event. Gilfords and everything
The street fairs all over Manhattan seem to be controlled by the same organizer. They are exactly the same – Peruvian sweaters, cheap eyeglasses, mops, Bonzai trees, agate slices,
and pretty awful food. They don’t reflect the different neighborhoods at all.
i will miss the West Manhattan Chamber…they were actively involved within the community from 59-110 Streets. They funded many worthwhile projects in Manhattan Valley….a special thank you from the PS 226M garden club.
Well *sigh* we’ll always have Zingone Brothers. Here’s looking at you, kid.
No loss. You’ve been to one street fair you’ve been to all of them.
I love the idea of neighborhood street fairs but I think over the years the initial purpose was lost. I believe they were good opportunities to promote local businesses and encourage other New Yorkers to visit our neck of the woods so to speak. It was a matter of civic pride. Somehow the message got lost and it became more about vendors hiding storefronts and restaurants and basically showing that the “fair” had little neighborhood identity. I remember seeing a stand of copycat fragrances set up directly in front of a perfumerie that was once situated at 100th and Broadway. The owner of the store was visibly and understandably distressed. It was as though our neighborhood was invaded by complete outsiders who didn’t know or care to know how really wonderful our home is! Our neighborhood should be celebrated not concealed by street sellers only out to make a quick buck!
Heard this too but Prohibition is still having their party and the Gilford’s are playing. We just booked our reservation for Sunday.
But they’re playing indoors in the cramped space at Pro – not the same thing at all
I always so enjoyed getting my exercise, my lunch and my shopping done at the ColumbusAvenue street fair. I’m already missing it!
In the beginning it was necessary for communities to have street fairs (it was all about coming-together with other communities, getting other communities to visit other communities, getting neighbors outside to meet their neighbors reinforce the neighborhood, building up the neighborhood with Block Associations and Tree committees. It was all in a positive way. Remembering the Columbus Avenue when the restaurants took part in the celebration with tastings and not charging for it. Great music by live bends and orchestras like the Boston Pops and the Philharmonic Orchestra from but now we have surpassed all that and built the neighborhoods that were lost in 50’s early 60’s and that moved to the East.
Now…it’s all memories, Remembering the first Craft Fair on Columbus Avenue representing the new culture… the new turnover of the ”new” Upper West Side of the late 60s early 70’s, even that is gone now and replaced by the food market. It was all necessary to have had all that to make the ingredients to what we have today. For the Upper West Side was going to turn into like the Upper Eastside is today. The Amsterdam/Columbus Avenue Fairs and Craft Fairs saved the Upper West Side from all that and gave us culture for what we have today.
So my UWS new and old friends…. Let us salute the organizers of the past for saving what we have today…
Oh no! I loved the street fairs. Yes there was some junk for sale, but there were also some treasures. Junk food yes, but some fun food too. I hope the fair on Broadway that for the last several years has had a section of amazing Asian food offerings survives. For those who are such grinches about the fairs, one would think they happened every week instead of 2 days out of 365. Get a grip. Really.
Thanks Cathy! Yes 2 days… I think the Scrooge’s can survive that!