The Q's been a fan of this project since inception (the plan's inception, not the Q's inception some 8 years ago, or my personal inception some 51 years ago). Affordable housing for lower income working people. Who would have thunk? The talk about incubator/tech/kitchen space for the longtime Caton Market vendors seems pretty hi-falutin and even incongruous given the sorts of ma/pa merchants who've been there since the colorful hangar-like structure went up, replacing what was then an outdoor Caribbean flavored flea-market situation. And while the idea two decades ago was to give the vendors access to customers all year round by building an indoor mall, it rather had the effect of keeping customers OUT. Not many folks got used to entering the mall on the regular to check out wares. And in fact, the food and merch vendors OUTside on the plaza did much better than the indoor businesses. Coconut milk or cut sugar cane anyone? Y'all can't get that kind of sidewalk food in Foodieville, now can you. Slowly but surely, much of what made this neighborhood unique is being erased. Progress they'll call it. Inevitable even. But no less sad.
And what's with this picture of the Caton Market from that Our Town piece? Never been there, don't recognize it. Before my time? Out in East Flatbush somewhere?
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