Some Carroll Gardeners are itching to shake off Brooklyn’s latest flea before it starts keeping them up all night long.
Residents living near the Gowanus Canal are demanding a plan to bring a late-night market-style festival and concert series to a concrete plant on the banks of Lavender Lake this summer be stopped in its tracks so they can get a good night’s sleep.
“This site is opposite residential streets, houses and apartment buildings, and will cause disturbances all night long,” the Coalition for Carroll Gardens wrote in an online petition that had 41 signatures as of press time.
But concrete maven John Quadrozzi, Jr., who owns the site on Huntington Street between Smith Street and the canal, says his lease with the creators of the Brooklyn Night Bazaar — popular markets inspired by those found in Asian cities boasting an array of food vendors, merchants, live music, DJs, dancing, a beer and wine garden, pig roasts, games, arts, and thousands of shoppers — will be a boon to the area.
“I think it’s a nice public event for people to enjoy themselves,” said Quadrozzi. “It’s another outlet to enhance the neighborhood.”
The flea market will run every Friday and Saturday night from June through the end of September, said Quadrozzi, who said that he will officially lease the entire city-block-sized lot to flea market impresario Aaron Broudo after the contract is drawn up in the coming days.
But activists who got wind of the plan after Community Board 6 was notified that Broudo submitted an application for a seasonal liquor license for wine and beer only to the State Liquor Authority are ready for a fight.
“There will be significant community pushback on this,” said Steven Miller, chair of the Coalition for Carroll Gardens, who is urging neighbors to protest the pop-up marketplace.
Broudo did not return calls or e-mails as of press time.
It’s not the first time one of Broudo’s pop-up flea markets has caused an outcry.
Greenpoint residents and politicians, including Councilman Steve Levin (D–Greenpoint), successfully halted his proposed bazaar from coming to that neighborhood’s waterfront two years ago.
Community Board 6’s permits and licenses committee is scheduled to vote on Broudo’s application for a liquor license on April 22. The full board will vote on it next month.
Reach reporter Natalie Musumeci at nmusumeci@cnglocal.com or by calling (718) 260-4505. Follow her at twitter.com/souleddout.
