City Attempt to Evict Latino Williamsburg Vendors Fails for Now

Even though the city is thinking about throwing out the Red Hook Ballfield vendors, there's good news about another group of Latino merchants that were facing city eviction at Williamsburg's Moore Street Market, which is called La Marqueta. The Daily News reports:

A group of Hispanic merchants facing a city order to vacate Brooklyn's last indoor market by next week has won a huge reprieve - it's not going anywhere for now.

The Daily News reported in March that the city's Economic Development Corp. had suddenly notified 20 merchants who operate in the cavernous Moore St. market in Williamsburg that the building was to close June 15 to make way for new affordable housing.

After decades at the same location, the merchants were furious at the city's bullying tactics.

"At first, they offered us $20 a square foot for our businesses and told us we had 20 minutes to make up our minds," recalled Virgilio Rodriguez, owner of Ramonita's Restaurant and head of the merchants group. "No papers, nothing in writing. Just get out, they said."

The bureaucrats at EDC didn't even have the common sense to consult the local community board about the city's plans to demolish the market - something required by city land use laws.

So the merchants refused to budge and vowed to fight.

The 70-year-old Moore St. market was always more than just a place to do business, they said. It is part of the fabric of Williamsburg life, with periodic cultural events and tiny shops and stalls that hearken back to the days before glitzy shopping malls and sterile big-box stores.

In a sign of the overwhelming support their cause quickly garnered, U.S. Rep. Nydia Velázquez (D-Brooklyn) and her political archrival, Assemblyman Vito Lopez (D-Brooklyn), the Kings County Democratic Party boss, joined forces in the fight to save La Marqueta.

Last Friday, City Hall finally did the right thing. At a meeting with Lopez and the merchants, EDC officials and Mayor Bloomberg's aides agreed to postpone any action for at least a year while all sides explore three alternatives to keep the market afloat.

One option, Lopez said, will be to develop a plan to fully rent the 15,000 square feet of space in the market. Only about half the space is currently leased and because of that, the market regularly runs a deficit.

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