Save the Red Hook Ball Fields
Josh Ozersky reports on Grub Street that the food concession contract at the Red Hook ball fields in Brooklyn are going to be put up for bidding by the city this fall and that the last day to eat the terrific grub found there will be September 7.
This, my friends, should not be allowed to happen. The Red Hook ball fields, where Latino families put up makeshift restaurants serving real, honest food of their home countries, is one of the last bastions of real food to be found in New York City. If it's replaced by a series of dirty water dog carts, a sausage-and-pepper stand, or some generic high bidder, it would be a travesty.
Serious Eats is going to start a petition to try to get the city to see the madness inherent in this misguided notion. Apparently the parks commissioner should be the object of our attention. Mr. Commissioner, you will be hearing from us.
Photograph from my friend Peter Cunningham
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6 Comments:
If the Parks Dept thinks that the crowds will be the same for standard Street Fair food as they are for the hurraches, tacos, and ceviche, they're fooling themselves. I wrote a letter already.
SoundBitesNYC at 4:39PM on 06/05/07
This is completely ass backward, Ed. SoundBitesNYC is totally spot on.
If the city sells the contract to some shitcrap generic street fair junk like the soulless and bland Italian sausage/funnel cake/corndog/tube socks vendors, NO ONE WILL BUY IT—not the A.) Latino folks playing soccer at the fields whose presence prompted the Red Hook vendors to spring up, not the B.) Yuppity-yup foodies schlepping their trendy asses there and blabbing about it later, and C.) not anyone who is not completely desperate.
Adam Kuban at 4:46PM on 06/05/07
BOO HISS! have you seen this little nugget about the fields on the NYT site?
MINI MOVIE ABOUT THE FIELDS , I am flying home this weekend just to have a bite of that corn. With coney island on the chopping block, the ball fields and god knows what else, what will become of the Brooklyn I know and love?
considertheend at 7:32PM on 06/05/07
Whatever and whenever - just let us know - this must not happen! As if a bunch of tourists and yuppies are going to go to the ball fields for porchetta and fennel sandwiches!
Livetotravel at 8:48PM on 06/05/07
when i saw that story yesterday it really started to sink in that although the momentum began awhile back (and this date is highly debatable on many fronts), 2007 is officially The Year New York City Died (TM).
j at 8:13AM on 06/06/07
to send an email to the commissioner of parks:
http://nyc.gov/html/mail/html/maildpr.html
kendrakicks at 3:48PM on 06/06/07