The annoying cookie-cutter street fairs that clog up avenues all summer could be transformed into dazzling events if organizers spiced them up with ethnic appeal and artistic performances, according to a report released yesterday.
New Yorkers from the Battery to The Bronx have grown to hate the fairs, mostly because they are nearly always the same, whether you’re in Jackson Heights or the on Upper East Side, according to the report by the Center for an Urban Future.
Not to mention the fact that the wares — tube socks and knockoff sunglasses — are about as genuine New York as Lender’s Bagels.
“Many of the vendors aren’t even based in the five boroughs,” said Jonathan Bowles, director of the nonpartisan think tank, which focuses on economic and development issues in New York.
“Everyone knows what the problem is. The street fairs clearly are lame. They should be a lot better. New Yorkers deserve so much more.”
To that end, his group quizzed two dozen Big Apple creative types, from entrepreneurs to authors, about what they would do to make the street fairs better.
“The one thing that kept coming up over and over is that we should take the street fairs back to the community,” he said. “They should reflect the flavor of New York City’s neighborhood in a way that they don’t now.”
One of the New Yorkers they talked to, Suketu Mehta, a journalist who wrote a book about Mumbai, suggested localizing the fairs by including attractions that highlight the immigrant groups that live in the parts of the city where they’re being held.
“It shouldn’t just be food and merchants,” he said. “Many of these cultures have traditions of carnival entertainment.”
“For instance, among South Asians, there is a tradition of henna painting. You could have a street fair in Jackson Heights where women could have their palms painted with henna.”
In neighborhoods with large Latin-American populations, there could be a “street fair where you learn how to dance the tango,” Mehta said.
Irwin Cohen, the real-estate developer who created Chelsea Market, suggested using performers.
“One of the great markets of New York is the theater. We should get people performing on Broadway and off-Broadway to perform at these fairs,” Cohen said.
“Just think about the depth of performers that we have in New York City. There is no other place like this in the world. This has to be brought out.”
Not only would the fair be better for the customers, but the theater community would also benefit, he said.
“The street fairs can become the best way of introducing people who don’t go to theater about what’s it really like, with young performers doing what they do.”