Save the New Amsterdam Market!

One of my favorite things about living in lower Manhattan (in addition to the many, many subway stops) is the New Amsterdam market. Usually held on Sundays from May to December, it's the best place in New York to pick up local ingredients, produce, and delicious, delicious meals, snacks, and desserts. For years now, Sunday has been my husband and my's favorite day of the week - heading down to the market for a great breakfast or lunch, grabbing fun new or old favorite provisions for the week, and then wandering around the weird little side streets around the South Street Seaport. Unfortunately, the Howard Hughes Corporation (HHC) is threatening to end all of it. They want to bulldoze the whole seaport and replace it with condos, hotels, and even more retail shopping (like the already gross Pier 17 mall and strip of now-abandoned-thanks-to-Sandy Abercrombie and Fitch and the likes). There's hope that the new mayor will put a stop to the development, since it needs to rezone the entire area before it buys up all the land, but candidate Christine Quinn (who said she supported the market) voted for the rezoning back in March. Lame. Honestly, I can't imagine who would be idiotic enough to put up hotels and condos in an area that was devastated by a hurricane less than a year ago, but that's neither here nor there. What is here and also there is a great article about this whole mess over at Serious Eats. It's a medium-sized read and well worth it. And in the meantime, I'm going to make sure I hit up all the now-monthly (because of the uncertainty, I think) market this fall.