To market, to market

Posted on June 21, 2016 by Gigi-a-Gogo

No Farms, No Beer!

On Friday afternoon we walked a few blocks to Union Square Greenmarket. Established in 1976, Grow NYC/Greenmarket is a consortium of 52 producer markets, meaning that all goods sold are either grown or produced by the seller, no third party selling allowed. This is a traditional, bustling, outdoor market filling the park with people and selling everything from seasonal produce to fresh baked goods and beer. I’d give this one a 8/10. We didn’t have much time to look around so I saw only about half of the vendors and the ones I spoke with weren’t overly chatty. Items were clearly marked with the price. Definitely would be a great place to run through on the way to or from work and is open four days a week year around.

Union Square

Saturday was an early start, touring six markets. First stop was UrbanSpace Vanderbilt, just a block from Grand Central Station. UrbanSpace is considered a food hall, everything sold is prepared food ready to eat. The vendors here rotate through on a regular basis, using the space as a springboard to bring a proven food concept to a larger audience in preparation for the next move, possibly into a storefront. Considering my definition of a market, I don’t think this one qualifies but it’s a fabulous concept for presenting a wide variety new food ideas. I went back the next day and bought a sushi HAI Urban SpaceWEB burrito from Hai Street Kitchen; anxious for this to hit Cincinnati. I’m rating this one a 9/10. Great food, reasonably priced, nice atmosphere, and friendly vendors.

Urban Space

Oreo Sigm WEB

Next was the Chelsea Market which is located on the first floor of the old Nabisco factory where Oreos used to be made. The Food Network studios are upstairs. This is a high-end market and an excellent example of commercial gentrification. Developers created an upscale neighborhood, with befitting shopping available, in what used to be New York’s meat packing district. It’s adjacent to the High Line but there is no entry from one to the other, poor planning on both ends for that. It’s a beautiful building with lots of shopping options but has a mall-like feeling, not like a market at all. There’s a section with prepared foods, a grocery store, a bakery with the kitchen behind glass walls so you can watch everything being made, and the best seafood market I’ve ever seen. I had to take a picture of the 30-pound lobster and the extra jumbo fresh water prawns. Lobster WEB There’s nothing wrong with Chelsea, it’s really great to see the transformation but it’s a sharp contrast to the Greenmarkets. I’d give this one a 4/10 for the overly-hip, too clean, pretend market feeling. I’m glad I got to visit but I wouldn’t seek it out on another trip.

Greem Market Mushrooms WEB It was a long trip through the city and across the Manhattan Bridge to Brooklyn and the Ft. Greene Park Greenmarket. It’s another of the Grow NYC Greenmarkets only on a much smaller scale. I don’t know if it was because I visited on a sunny day or if I like small markets, but fell in love with this one. The vendors were lined up along the sidewalk on the edge of the park and each stall was bursting with beautiful produce, baked goods, and flowers. The vendors were talkative and helpful, prices were clearly marked, and I wanted to take all of it home with me. I especially liked the mushroom vendor and the display of Hen-of-the-Woods. At the corner of the block the vendor tents continued down the intersecting street. Placed around the corner space were compost bins where residents can bring food scraps to be turned into lovely soil. I’m not sure if Greenmarkets sell the compost or if they use it in their gardening programs, but what a wonderful idea. This one was a favorite and rates a 10/10.

Composting!

Brooklyn ROw HouseWEB The walk to Brooklyn Flea was fun. The neighborhood is block after block of brownstone row houses and mature trees, it looks so much like what I think about when I think of New York. It was interesting to see all the signs advertising “Stoop Sales!!” City living certainly limits the yards and garages available for getting rid of unwanted stuff. The flea market is located in the parking lot of Bishop Loughlin Memorial High School. Bring a cold drink and a fan because walking on the black asphalt in the sun is hot, hot, hot. This is the place to find used furniture, vintage clothing, and old B Flea Bags WEB record albums. There are quite a few stalls with handmade jewelry, scarves, and art but I thought it was leaning to the expensive side. Again, fun, but not a market to me. They did, however, have an amazing array of local food producers. This is one of New York’s largest markets and is open on Saturdays only. It’s obviously a community anchor with hundreds of people shopping and plenty of families sitting on the school steps and the curb of the sidewalk eating lunch. I give it a 4/10 because there was no shade, tables, or places to take a rest. It’s definitely a flea market but bargains are hard to find. Like Chelsea, I’m glad for the experience but wouldn’t make a return visit.

Brooklyn Flea

After a restful trip back to Manhattan in the lovely air- Essex Market Vendor WEB conditioned bus, we stopped at Essex Street Market. In the late 1930’s Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia banned the push cart markets because of unsanitary conditions. He built four indoor markets, one of them the Essex Street Market. Today, the market occupies only the center building of the original three that had been built. It’s open seven days a week and, to me, is an authentic market serving the neighborhood the way a market should. The current population in the neighborhood is primarily Asian and Latin American and Essex Street reflects that in their vendors and the items they sell. Over the years, they have adapted to the changing needs of their shoppers and that resilience has helped them keep the doors open for more than 70 years. There are plans to relocate Essex Market about a half block away to a mixed use development that is under construction. I’m sad for the move as surely, the market will lose the character of the crowded aisles and shelves, the curious twists and turns around the seller’s stalls, the old tile floor, and the spirit of tens of thousands of Lower East Side residents who have shopped there over the years.

I felt those spirits as I walked around and around this market, shoulders bumping, heavy baskets cradled in the crooks of elbows, and children tagging along hoping for a treat. I spoke with several of the vendors here and, for the most part, they are looking forward to the new location. There is more opportunity there, a chance for expansion and the

Wisdom from Jonas at Arancini Brothers Sicilian Rice Balls in Essex Street Market

addition of more vendors. Most of all, the hope is that this move will bring in more shoppers to keep the market operating another 70 years. I still find it sad. This was my overall favorite, I’m going up to eleven on this one.

Turning left and walking three long blocks down Essex Street to Seward Park we found Hester Street Fair. Open only on

Hester Street Fair

Saturdays it is a lovely art fair, small but has lots of vendors selling handmade goods. There was soap, honey, jewelry, wallets made out of comic book pages, and sunglasses. Meet the House of Correia. Sunglass Girls WEB These young women have mad sales skills. I had been searching for days for just the right thing to take home to my daughters and I paused at their stall. They had handbags with dinosaurs closures and sunglasses decorated with repurposed costume jewelry. The next thing I knew, I had swiped my card to pay for four pair of the best sunglasses ever. The good news is, if my girls don’t like them, I have four new pair of sunnys. Check them out at vendor fairs around NYC and on Etsy.

I’d give Hester Street a 7/10 for great vendors, good vibe, and plenty of seating with shade. It’s a fun stop if you’re in the neighborhood but again, for me, doesn’t meet the definition of a community centered market. I’d love to shop there for gifts but not someplace I’d go every week.

I was able to get a bonus visit to Grand Central Market which is located closest to the Grand Central MArket Sign WEB Lexington Avenue entrance in between the Lexington and Graybar Passages in Grand Central Station. This market is open seven days a week and covers commuters coming home from work on weekdays, staying open until 9:00pm. It’s a small shop, just a single row with vendors on either side but offers a wide variety of fresh fish, meats, cheeses, baked goods, produce, spices, and sweets. I felt like I had come to a great playground with so many interesting things to touch and consider for purchase. Several vendors have some convenience food, too, ready to take home and finish. This is definitely a high-end market but feels more homey than Chelsea.

Spices and Tease at Grand Central

It is crowded and the vendors will pitch to shoppers for the sale. It made me feel very hip, moving from stall to stall trying to choose what to buy. I wondered if people could tell I was an out-of towner or if I blended in with the local New Yorkers? I hope I blended, that would be so much better. Grand Central scores an 10/10 for being visually gorgeous, colorful, friendly, having a wide variety of items, and convenience. It was pricey, but for anyone who can afford to live in Midtown Manhattan, not outrageous.

So many markets! Stay tuned for story about people I met and places I found, mostly when I was lost and wandering the streets around Midtown and the Lower East Side.

Pescatore Seafood CO. at Grand Central

How to create successful public markets

Posted on June 17, 2016 by Gigi-a-Gogo

OK, so this the official reason I came to New York. I am a graduate student studying history and culture with an emphasis on urban planning and how public markets create and define community. Marketplaces have been neighborhood centers in cities all over the world

She Wolf Bakery at Fort Greene Park Greenmarket

since time began. In the city of Cincinnati, around the time of the Civil War, there were nine markets in operation. As the city grew, incline railways were installed to provide an easy way to navigate the hills surrounding the outskirts of town. With this new form of transportation, people migrated out of the inner-city to live in the “suburbs” of the time. As the population became less dense and methods of transportation became easier to navigate, there was less need for so many markets. Most residents didn’t have the need of a market place to be within walking distance of home. Refrigeration became more dependable, so food could be stored at home rather than purchased fresh every day. Luckily, my beloved Findlay Market in Over the Rhine made it through the lean years and has remained in continuous operation since it opened in 1852.

HerbsWEB The Project for Public Spaces is a non-profit organization which opened in 1975 to help people who want to create more livable cities. Every summer and fall they host a conference and invite anyone to attend who is interested in preserving, growing, or building a successful market. The conference in June had attendees from California, Oregon, Texas, North Carolina, Kentucky, Massachusetts, Washington, Colorado, Idaho, Louisiana, Mexico, Portugal, Canada, Australia, Ecuador, and Bermuda. It was an amazing two days of learning and conversation with people who have the same goal: to create and maintain a successful public market that will provide jobs, healthy food, and a community anchor in their cities. My goal was a bit different in that I was collecting information to build

Fort Greene Park Greenmarket

a base of evidence for my thesis research.

The opportunity to visit seven iconic New York City markets and speak “market-ese” for two days was a dream come true. From the first few moments together everyone was talking, sharing stories, offering advice, asking questions, showing pictures, comparing demographics…all in all just the friendliest bunch of people ever. Then again, these are market people, when have you ever met a grump at a public market? The plus for me was that I learned so much about the structure of a successful market, how to create a good mix of vendors and how to manage the

Hester Street Fair

vendors and encourage them to have an attractive, selling stall. We talked about how to create welcoming public space and how to control quality growth. So many new concepts to ponder and so many confirmations that my thesis proposal is solid. My mind was in overload mode for days after the conference concluded.

Next up…pictures and mini-critiques of Market Saturday.

My good luck as an immigrant in New York

Posted on June 9, 2016 by Gigi-a-Gogo

Union Square Park

My first day was a whirlwind of meeting New York City head on. I stored my luggage at the front desk of the hotel and took off down Madison Avenue heading for the Lower East Side and the Tenement Museum. The traffic, the noise, the people and general commotion of a large city made it easy for me to hide in the middle of it all. I wasn’t afraid but there was some apprehension about getting lost in the maze of unfamiliar streets. Even though I had addresses of what I was looking for on Google Maps, I still got lost several times every day. That wasn’t a completely bad thing, though, because every time I got lost I discovered wonderful bits of the city.

The nearly 3 mile walk to the Tenement Museum took almost two hours. I stopped every couple of blocks to look in storefronts or down open cellar doors to watch the activity going on. I picked up lunch along the way and decided to stop in Union Square Park to eat and people watch. This park is about three blocks long and one block wide, not huge but big enough for a couple thousand people to be there playing, walking, sitting, talking, eating, and just hanging out. It was crowded and busy and an interesting spot to people-watch. The first thing I had to do was decide where I wanted to sit and rest. Along the Park Avenue side there were lots of benches, many with open seating. I didn’t feel comfortable stopping there, though. I noticed it was men who had claimed those seats. No particular age group or ethnicity, just all men. It made me think about one of my readings last week that studied how interactions happen in public spaces and how groups tend to congregate in “their spot” every time they visit any space where they claim ownership. I didn’t want to seem like I was trying in invade anyone’s spot even though I had no way of knowing if this was indeed “their spot” or not. So, on I went until I saw a woman about my age sitting along a wall facing a wide walkway. I sat down a couple of feet away from her and started to eat my lunch. The wall wasn’t very comfortable but did give me a sense of safety in that there was someone else, very similar to me in that she was a middle-aged woman, resting in a patch of bright sunlight. It was very interesting to witness what I have been studying play out in this park with groups naturally segregating themselves into like-minded clusters and me walking until I found a spot next to someone I felt a possible bond with, even though we never spoke or acknowledged that the other was there.

So, on I walked to the corner of Delancey and Orchard Streets and into the Tenement 97 Orchard DoorWEB Museum. This museum is a fascinating study of life in the Lower East Side from 1863-1935. 97 Orchard Street housed a storefront business in the lowest floor with 20 apartments above, four on each of five floors, two forward and two in the back. There were four privies and one water spigot in the courtyard behind the building. Each apartment had three rooms: a bedroom, kitchen, and parlor for a total of about 350 square feet. In the 70 years this particular building housed families, there had been over 7000 people who had called it home. The tours are an intriguing look into family and community life in the most densely populated neighborhood in the United States at the turn of the 20^th century. The people who lived there were dependent upon their community for survival as many had left their extended families behind in their home countries. They were dependent on community to find familiar language and customs, to ease the feelings of loss of their homeland, and to have people 97 Orchard Fire Escape WEB with which to create new familial bonds. The neighborhood changed and adapted over the years as waves of new immigrants came to New York. What started as a mostly German enclave next became home to Eastern European Jewish families and then home to Italian immigrants.

I took three tours, two in the 97 Orchard Street building and the last called “Tenement Tastings” which was an eight course tasting menu of traditional ethnic foods that could be found in the Lower East Side. After a long day of travel, walking, and touring I was exhausted by the end of the meal. It was then that I had the great luck of meeting my first official NYC friends. They were three sisters and the mom, all talking at once, laughing, eye-rolling, teasing, and sharing the meal. They reminded me so much of evenings out with my daughters, it was fun to watch them and wonder what people thought about us when we were out. I asked them for help finding the subway back to my hotel. I told them I knew there was a train somewhere near but was completely lost as to finding it and purchasing a ticket. The oldest daughter immediately said I could ride back with her as she was going to take the exact train I needed. The rest of the family agreed that I should come along and so I did. There I was, a newcomer in Manhattan, taken in by this lovely family who helped me find the station, purchase my ticket, and taught me how to navigate the subway system. We were together for only about thirty minutes but in that short time we compared the price of rent and groceries where we lived, shared stories about our travel and families, and found similarities among ourselves even though we live very different lifestyles. We parted ways at 42^nd and Madison with smiles and handshakes and wishes to have a good night. They are a lovely family and I hope they will check in on this site. I have a terrible memory so wrote down their names then promptly lost track of the paper I wrote them on. Here is their picture. They gave me the best welcome I’ve ever had and I hope I will meet them again someday. What a coincidence that the sisters lined up in age order just like mine do.

Maya, Molly, Alice, and Chloe! I heard from both Alice and Molly…thank you for your help, I am honored that you took such good care of me!

Things I learned my first day in New York

Posted on June 8, 2016 by Gigi-a-Gogo

I thought this one was pretty. Across from Union Square Park.

I got here, safe and sound, and much to my own surprise I picked up my luggage, walked out through the sliding glass doors of the airport, boarded the Super Shuttle and did not die. This is the first time I’ve ever landed in a city and didn’t have someone drive up in a car to rescue me from whatever danger was waiting to smack me in the face. I’ve always had this anxiety about walking out of an airport by myself and my friends know this and accept that weird little bit of my personality. Therefore, I’ve always triple double checked everyone’s travel plans, making sure I was either on someone else’s flight or the last one to arrive, so someone else would have a rental car and come get me. I know it’s a ridiculous thing to be afraid of but that yawning maw of the great beyond on the other side of the glass door is scary. So this trip, completely on my own, was a very big deal. Someone even called it bold. Indeed.

This is the only signage for The Cornell Club of New York…just the number 6. It felt like they’re trying to keep it a secret.

I am beyond tired right now, so I decided to just post a list of the things I learned my first day:

It’s going to take 2 hours for a shared van to get from LaGuardia to Mid-town Manhattan and there’s nothing I can do to make the traffic move any faster.
When the van driver drops me off on Madison Avenue, a block and a half from my hotel and tells me it’s just around the corner, I should grab the handle of my suitcase like a boss and fake it until I make it. Always smile at the doorman when I finally find it.
In Manhattan, nobody drives in the marked lanes; they go where they please and even run a red light to get in front of a tour bus.
I will never drive in Manhattan.
It’s a long way to walk from 44th and Madison to Delancey and Orchard but worth every step and there’s a Cuban restaurant on 23rd with really good croquettes.
I shouldn’t have worn the dress with the full skirt because it’s windy here and also, there’s the subway grates.
The Lower East Side is full of the most interesting people.
I love the Tenement Museum and all the tour guides are fabulous.
New Yorkers are very friendly, helpful to lost visitors, and love to chat about their city.
I walked 14,000 steps and am very glad I wore my Keen’s. They aren’t the most fashion forward of cute shoes but my feet don’t hurt at all and that makes me happy.

Tenement Museum Sign web

Nighty, night. It’s an early morning tomorrow.

The new phone book’s here!

Posted on May 17, 2016 by Gigi-a-Gogo

I’m somebody now! No, not really the phone book, but a nod to Steve Martin from the Jerk. The new phone book is here x

I got just as excited as Navan Johnson, though, when my membership card from the Lower East Side Tenement Museum in Manhattan came last week. The quote is my favorite go to when I see my name in print. I said it when I saw my badge from the Ohio History Connection regional meeting I attended in March. Somehow it makes me feel real. It gives me some cred with other professionals. It lets visitors to Findlay Market understand that I really know what I’m talking about when I lead historic tours there.

So, Manhattan, yes! That’s the next adventure for Gigi-a-Gogo. I’m trying hard to remain calm and not spend hours on the web looking at maps of Mid-Town and the Lower East Side, figuring out how many things I can see in the few days I’ll be there. I’m going to attend a conference given by the Project for Public Spaces called “How to Create Successful Public Markets” in partial completion of my Applications I class. I also have 5 tours booked at the Tenement Museum and a docent lead tour of Grand Central Station. Get ready for lots of pictures on Instagram and daily posts detailing the excitement of my first time in NYC.

The conference is two days and will be lead by three experienced market builders. One, David O’Neil, is the former General Manager of the Reading Terminal Market in Philadelphia. Being the market groupie I am, I can’t wait bask in the glow of all this historic market bliss. I’m hoping to have some time to connect with Mr. O’Neil to speak with him about his ideas for keeping the wave of urban market popularity alive. I’ve visited the Reading Terminal Market several times. It’s sits beneath where the old terminal train sheds were located in downtown Philadelphia and has been in operation since 1892. It’s a huge indoor space filled with more than 75 vendors selling everything from fresh fish to handmade Amish doughnuts. I’m hopeful I will be able to get back there on one of my long-weekend market jaunts within the next year.

Quick side trip to Philly, back to New York…I’ve had so many recommendations from friends on where to go and what to see. The time I’m spending at the Tenement Museum and Grand Central will add to my arsenal of information about how communities function and how shared public places enable residents to form attachments to place. Think about it. Your block, your school, the park you snuck a smoke in when you were 13 all help to give a definition and sense of self. Imagine how different your life would be if these places were not there when you were growing up. As I am beginning to dig in to my thesis study I am continually amazed to find so many things that contribute to form who we are, what triggers memories of past events, and the attachment that binds it all together. Open, public places need to be prominent in all city plans to give future generations a chance to create that connectedness to place.

Lots of squee* in my life right now. Less than three week until blast-off, not sure I can stand it.

The new phone book is here.2x.jpg

*The sound I make when there’s so much excitement I don’t know what else to do.

Gigi-a-Gogo

Studying places, people, and public markets everywhere.

Tag Archives: Lower East Side