For much of the last three decades, Memorial Day weekend has been the traditional opening day for the Red Hook Fields food vendors. Chowhounds and other foodies have watched the date like birders waiting in Capistrano.
But the weekend has come and gone, and no vendors. A few have been sighted at the Brooklyn Flea in Fort Greene. Even though Parks & Rec granted them a six-year permit in March, it wasn't clear whether all the vendors would be able to return, given all the expenses involved in meeting Dept. of Health requirements.
I was about to check with vendor rep Cesar Fuentes when I ran across this interview with him at Porkchop Express, which has been at the forefront of documenting and defending the vendors.
The good news: it's almost certain all of the vendors will return, and the new permit allows them to expands days of operation.
The meh: the look will be different, with carts instead of the mercado-looking tents.
The ugly: the new costs -- an added $30,000 for some -- mean that they really need all those folks who defended them to put their money where their mouth is.
César, the son of one of the vendors, has become a great rep for the group. He's passionate, poised and politic. The latter, seeing how he's made sure to speak in a way that does not risk his relations to the city agencies that control the vendors' destiny, had me
carefully reading his responses.
PE: How much do you think race, language and immigration played into the city's crackdown?
CF:
This is certainly a very touchy subject, and I have heard compelling
arguments that these were some of the reasons behind the city's
crackdown. I also believe the vendor's increased fame and notoriety
accelerated this process, along with general changes to the area. It
might also simply have been 'our time' to face compliance. I can't help
but think that it was a collection of all these factors, and that one
word sums it all up: gentrification.
This is the closest that Cesar has come to pointing the finger at the racial/gentrification factor in public. The funny thing is, I never quite understood why the vendors bothered the city so much. They are set up in the middle of fields that, guess what, gentrifying whites do not use.
The closest housing to the fields is basically the projects, the sort of factor that normally provides a buffer to clean-up efforts. But I guess that some think the coming of Ikea and Fairway (not to mention all the cute businesses along Van Brunt) will finally change the area, i.e., make it safe for the bougie whites.
But the funny thing is that, as I talked about in my "emotional eminent domain" post, newcomers with money (and even in Red Hook, one has to have $$$ to buy these days) always want a little color with their convenience. Fairway and the vendors.
According to Cesar, the soccer games that were the original reason for the vendors to set up have declined. (I can confirm that: when I first covered the vendors a decade ago, the games were lively; these days, they are merely background, with only the players' families as spectators.)
Since many of our patrons now pay less
mind to soccer than to Huaraches, the vendors have become the
main attraction. When Red Hook was rediscovered, so were the food
vendors. Still, vendors' reactions were mixed: some adapted quickly,
others more gradually.... They could have easily relocated to
other fields in the city with a stronger Latino presence, but didn't –
even if they felt anger or initial resentment towards the change. And
in a very human way, the vendors have adapted to change in the way they
operate and do business, welcoming new crowds without sacrificing their
authenticity.
I'm with Cesar. The vendors have adapted to the changing market but retained a strong identity. And I don't think that the audience is mostly non-Latino. When I've done informal surveys in the last couple of years, there have been plenty of Latinos there. It's just that they too are mostly there for the food and not the games.
In either case, be on the lookout for the return of the vendors, possibly in another couple of weeks. Look for the news here or at Porkchop's site.
[pix of huaraches, plantain balls and ceviche from last year's market by me]