Hester Street Fair: Grand Opening

June 6, 2010

It was thrilling to attend the "grand opening" of the Hester Street Fair. The lot had been idle for decades, the opposing factions in our community and a lack of leadership of our boards made it a non-starter of an issue. Congratulations to all who contributed to the success of this endeavor.

I hope that the fair's success is something that we can leverage. It is fantastic that the farmer's market will start operating along Essex Street, and I hope that we'll put pressure on the Parks Department to start opening the Essex Street entrances to Seward Park. I also hope that we can explore the possibility of extending the fair into Hester Street itself. It seems obvious that optimizing the use of this area will lead to community and economic revitalization of our neighborhood.

I also hope that we can continue to better utilize our grounds (a full presentation of ideas can be read in this SPBuzz article from May 2009). In particular, let's improve the flow from Hester Street, behind Buildings 3 and 4, and provide access out to East Broadway.