Market Vendors Triumph

It was an idiotic move to begin with-the EDC attempt to shut down La Marqueta in Brooklyn-and now, according to the NY Times, it appears that the vegetable vendors in the market that was established in the 1930s will be able to stay on: "The inventory at the Moore Street Retail Market is about to be restocked with the one must-have item that was fast running out: time. A year and a half after the city proposed closing this Depression-era public market on the eastern edge of Williamsburg, Brooklyn, to make way for rental housing, the market’s scrappy vendors are on the verge of signing a five-year lease (with an option for five more if things go well)."

The original move made little sense since the city is trying to insure that neighborhoods such as these have good access to the very same healthy fruits and veggies that Moore Street is known for; and kudos the the electeds who stepped up to fight for these small businesses: "...the vendors scrambled to rally friends and neighbors to preserve what they saw as their tropical town square. They gathered 25,000 signatures on a petition and appealed to local politicians like Representative Nydia M. Velázquez and Assemblyman Vito J. Lopez. They are good allies to have: She is the chairwoman of the House Committee on Small Business, and he is the chairman of the State Assembly’s Committee on Housing."

So another example of the Bloombergistas attempt to shut down the little guys is defeated, and we are all counting down the time for when the lame duck quacks will be heard no more. Hats off to Virigilio Rodriguez who led the fight: “I’m happier than a dog with two tails,” said Virgilio Rodriguez, the head of the vendors’ association. “They wanted to throw us out. Now we have a place that will give us life. This is our past, our present and our future.”