Mayor Bloomberg has granted the Feast of San Gennaro the right to continue its full-length festival in September, according to an article today in The New York Post by Sally Goldenberg, "despite opposition from the local community board spurred on by high-end boutique owners in the neighborhood who wanted it scaled down."
"Bloomberg - who is no fan of street fairs - sided with the 85-year-old Italian festival, allowing it to run the length of Mulberry Street, from Canal to Houston, for 11 days despite the board's request it be cut off at Kenmare," the article said.
The mayor, the article continued, "did throw a bone to the community board, ordering the celebration end 30 minutes earlier - at midnight instead of 12:30 a.m. - on Fridays and Saturdays and begin 30 minutes later - at 11:30 a.m. instead of 11 a.m. - every day. 'We listened to both sides and now have a compromise of a modest reduction in hours,' Bloomberg said through spokeswoman Evelyn Erskine."
Retailers running pricey, fashionable shops in Nolita - the area North of Little Italy - complained about the festival, depicting it as a greasy, low-brow event.
Their criticisms sparked a fiery feud with the festival organizers, who claimed they tried to compromise to no avail, even offering to limit certain food stands near particular stores.
A recent editorial in The Villager noted that "when the Feast of San Gennaro started back in 1926 it was a much humbler affair."
"It was a one-day, religious-based event, centered on Mulberry St. between Grand and Hester Sts.," it continued, "where Neapolitan immigrant families owning coffeehouses brought tables out onto the sidewalk in honor of their patron saint's day. The feast has since burgeoned to 11 days and seven blocks, and is now run by Mort & Ray Productions, one of the city's major street-fair operators."
"Trying to mediate the conflicting interests," it added that "Community Board 2's Street Activities & Film Permits Committee did a good job of reaching some sort of compromise for this year's festival in September. Past attractions that drew the most complaints won't be included in this year's festival, notably, karaoke and "Dunk the Clown" - the latter featuring a loudmouthed insult clown who would have made Don Rickles blush. Rock and hip-hop music CD's and mafia T-shirts also won't be sold."
"Bloomberg - who is no fan of street fairs - sided with the 85-year-old Italian festival, allowing it to run the length of Mulberry Street, from Canal to Houston, for 11 days despite the board's request it be cut off at Kenmare," the article said.
The mayor, the article continued, "did throw a bone to the community board, ordering the celebration end 30 minutes earlier - at midnight instead of 12:30 a.m. - on Fridays and Saturdays and begin 30 minutes later - at 11:30 a.m. instead of 11 a.m. - every day. 'We listened to both sides and now have a compromise of a modest reduction in hours,' Bloomberg said through spokeswoman Evelyn Erskine."
Retailers running pricey, fashionable shops in Nolita - the area North of Little Italy - complained about the festival, depicting it as a greasy, low-brow event.
Their criticisms sparked a fiery feud with the festival organizers, who claimed they tried to compromise to no avail, even offering to limit certain food stands near particular stores.
A recent editorial in The Villager noted that "when the Feast of San Gennaro started back in 1926 it was a much humbler affair."
"It was a one-day, religious-based event, centered on Mulberry St. between Grand and Hester Sts.," it continued, "where Neapolitan immigrant families owning coffeehouses brought tables out onto the sidewalk in honor of their patron saint's day. The feast has since burgeoned to 11 days and seven blocks, and is now run by Mort & Ray Productions, one of the city's major street-fair operators."
"Trying to mediate the conflicting interests," it added that "Community Board 2's Street Activities & Film Permits Committee did a good job of reaching some sort of compromise for this year's festival in September. Past attractions that drew the most complaints won't be included in this year's festival, notably, karaoke and "Dunk the Clown" - the latter featuring a loudmouthed insult clown who would have made Don Rickles blush. Rock and hip-hop music CD's and mafia T-shirts also won't be sold."
Architecture Critic
Carter Horsley
Since 1997, Carter B. Horsley has been the editorial director of CityRealty. He began his journalistic career at The New York Times in 1961 where he spent 26 years as a reporter specializing in real estate & architectural news. In 1987, he became the architecture critic and real estate editor of The New York Post.
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