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Holiday Market, How do you Dare to Take Our Union Square?

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Christmas is in the air.  Whichever store you go to, the music makes you hum along “All I want for Christmas is you.” Union Square is crowded: its numerous stores attract hundreds of customers. Starting November 16, the Union Square Holiday Market adds to it. Bright red and white tents form rows and rows of the selling spots with future Christmas presents. The market seems to be a perfect add-on to the Square reflecting the overall holiday mood of the New Yorkers, but it only seems so. To a number of people this market took over the space where they spent their free time. Skaters, bikers, soccer players were forced to relocate.
The Union Square Holiday Market is run by “Urban Space”, a huge organization founded in 1978, active not only in the U.S., but also in Great Britain. In order to become a vendor, you have to sell something unique and creative. Urban Space helped to develop such businesses as “Body Shop” and a British designer “Red or Dead.”
While walking around the market, it is impossible to pass the picturesque Turkish tent with a number of ceramics, tiles, plates, cups, lamps, and rugs etc. This section of the market is so bright and unusual, that even if you are not into Mediterranean stuff, it is hard to walk by without stopping. Alphan Atila, one of the owners of this family business, says they have been selling their products in the Holiday Market on Union Square for ten years already. They also have a tent in a Columbus Circle market (which is also run by Urban Space) and they used to be a part of the holiday market next to WTC.
Mr. Atila says that the representatives of “Urban Space” have called him for ten years asking if he wants to participate in the fair and he never said “no”: “It is a very good promotion for our web-site. They can see the products and we can sell them. The soul loves bright colors, people are attracted to them. Before we used to do the online wholesale, but this market made us look at our products as at gift items.” Mr. Atila says that the main customers are American, European, and Brazilian women who love the authentic Turkish craft.
Another tent with such unusual goods the glassblowers tent. The shelves are covered with strange creatures made of glass. Here and there familiar beer or vodka bottles are transformed into a vase, glass or a candle holder. Mark Sunrise, the artist, says that he has been participating in this market for five years already and he will do the same next year. He works in Massachusetts and brings his work in NYC where it is being sold mostly to tourists.
Sanya Breznikar, one of the customers of the Union Square Holiday Market says: “I love the market on Union Square. Christmas is coming and we all want to give interesting presents. I bought socks with shina inu (breed of a dog) on them. One pair was 25 bucks! I cant believe it! But it is still worth it, because this is the dog that is waiting for me at home and at least once a year you can splurge like that.”
Still, not everyone is happy with the pre-holiday Union Square transformation. Tyriq Holloway and his friends were forced out by the holiday market: “Old-school skateboarding started at Tompkins and my generation migrated to Union to skate the stairs, there is a rail and ramps, there are people, you can talk to people, and now with the market we are back at Tompkins skating. Now, there are twice the number of people  in Tompkins;. There is just flat ground. You cant really like skate off the stairs and practice to the highest extent, so we are stuck at Tompkins until this market is done. And I don’t even know how long its gonna take. It will probably take forever. At least Union looks better than before. There were a lot of homeless people. One time I almost got my camera stolen. Now you can’t sit down and  you can’t hang around. But you can shop and spend money like everyone else.”
“BMXers” or the bikers go to the skate park near the bridge for the time being.
Tyriq says that sometimes they skate in the back of Union Square, though there are no obstacles or ramps, just flat ground, he adds “it’s boring, but better than nothing. No one can bother us.”
One of Tyriq’s friends, John, is mad about the market. Tyriq says: “He is a little upset about the whole thing. He just started, so, for him, the only place to practice  is Union.”
Not all the regulars are unhappy. Justin, one of the chess players who plays chess for money right on Union square, says the market did not affect him negatively He is still there, now on a curb of the market, which attracts more people, so that he gets more business as well.
The market will stay there for a little more than a week. Skaters and the bikers, annoyed at being displaced, will have to wait. Thankfully, Christmas is only once a year.

Katherine Vaz post

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I am so disappointed that I did not know about Katherine Vaz teaching at Baruch,. That would have been such a great opportunity to read the book, ask questions about it right from the author, and ask the author about some tricks she uses in writing. We had a small chance to ask this writer several questions at the event and next day in class, which was nice.

I read some of her stories and they seemed to me gloomy and sad, as if the writer went through all these difficulties in life herself. In one story, the death of her father was mentioned, and she passed on to the reader a very suppressed, horrible feeling.

Not only is she brilliant at composing the story and telling it to us, but she also knows how to capture the reader. I loved the stylistic devices she uses. She is all about metaphors and similes: for instance, when she writes about the imprisoned mother and son, she describes the mother as very attached to son, hugging him all the time, and she has “hands like ropes,” or “her skin was perfect, soft as an eggplant,” or “eggs smooth as river stones.”

Sometimes she uses two words that do not normally go together, making her own oxymoron: so, in her stories a character can drink a voice, or someone can be scarlet with anger, or the moon can excerpt a round cataract.

This kind of writing is based on the skillfulness of using a word and changing it, so that the reader is stunned, shocked and thus made to remember the author.

I wish Baruch had more opportunities to bring writers like Katherine Vaz so that even those students who miss a space in the class have another great writer to register for.

Quiz

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How would you describe his place on the social/political spectrum? Is he a conservative, a liberal, or middle of the road? Back up your description by giving examples from the article.

When I just came to the states, I had so many questions to ask. I either asked my friends or went online. I wish I knew someone like Mr. Shata. Of course, there are many centers that help the immigrants with different issues, but Mr. Shata seems to react to all the problems of the Muslim community in Bay Ridge from another angle.

To my mind, he is conservative, yet he tries to adapt to American lifestyle. It was interesting how he solved the problem of stealing the donated money: he had “the man swear an oath on the Koran.” “Whoever lies while taking an oath on the Koran goes blind afterwards.”

In general his resolutions of the peoples problems seem softer than in Egypt or elsewhere in Muslim world. He says that the oral sex can be performed while in marriage, and on the other hand, it is very hard to get a divorce from him, since he will be responsible for it. The imam lets Muslims eat McDonald’s, “but not bacon cheeseburger.”  These are all the examples of the adaptation of a Muslim to an American world. One more thing I liked when the author compared two countries, the US and Egypt, is when he talks about the order: “Americans stood in line. They tended their yards. One could call a police and hear a rap at the door minutes later.” Egypt lacks all this, and it sound so familiar with Russia.

This article is a nice piece describing the liaison of two cultures and two completely different world, where Mr. Shata is a conductor.

 

Conflict story ideas

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1. Art. Union Square is a full of artwork. Restrictions concerning street art.

2. Union Square park. Closes at night, sketchy in the daytime.

3. Rats and roaches in the restaurants.

4. Holiday market takes all the space. There is no place for skateboarders, chess-players, and all these weird people to hang out

The Beekeeper: as Beesy as a Bee. By Zhanna Kubankina

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Life is the flower for which love is the honey.

~ Victor Hugo

A whole variety of vegetables, fruits, pastry, flowers, jams, cheeses, and, of course, honey can be found in Union Square on the days when it transforms into a farmers market.

“No, we did not bring the bees with us”- says a sign right next to Andrew Cotés (41) honey stand, which is covered by bees.  There is a number of colored jars, pollen, whole pieces of honeycombs, propolis, royal jelly, beeswax, even soap -everything is fresh and healthy.

Where can a New Yorker find real honey in NYC? One does not need to go anywhere outside the city. The honey is right there: on the rooftops of multiple buildings all around the urban area. Coté has 320 hives total in Connecticut, New York State, and best of all, five boroughs of NYC.

“Beekeeping in the city is different than in the country,” said Andrew. Among the factors that can affect the quality and quantity of the product are the weather conditions, strength and health of the queen, and resources for the bees. You also have to be aware of the diseases that bees can get: different kinds of mites, bacteria, fungi infection, viruses, etc.

For bees to get pollen, Andrew “puts bee hives where other people have flowers already.” These flowers affect the variety of honey, so in order to get buckwheat honey, he finds fields of buckwheat (but this sort of honey can be produced outside city area, where there is space for fields). Among other varieties of honey he has are: blueberry, orchard tree, clover and basswood. One of the most popular is the wildflower, which is basically honey made with pollen of all different kinds of flowers that are available for bees in the area (that are around the beehive) or what the bees can find.

Andrew does not use any chemicals in his work with bees, but he cannot guarantee his produce to be organic, because a bee can fly anywhere up to five kilometers away to get pollen: “You can’t control that. Somebody might spray the flowers, but we do the best that is possible.”

Andrew is a fourth generation beekeeper. He started helping out his family with the business when he was 10 years old.  His whole family is involved into the business, “The bees are like my daughters”, -said Andrew. He calls himself the largest single beehive owner in New York City, who was also raised in NYC.

Apart from Union Square, he also sells his produce in Forest Hills, near Columbus Circle. He also took part at New York City Day at the High Line.

Andrew’s honey is well-known; he does not even need a business card or any kind of advertisement. He simply does what he can do best and lets his business speak for itself. “I rely on word of mouth,”- he said-“and I have a website (andrewshoney.com) only because one of my customers made it.”

His customers are all kinds of people: children, grown up, black white, Russian, Turkish, Chinese, in Andrews opinion, “In New York there is no particular anything”.

Natalie Porter, a salesperson (21) says that whipped honey is the most popular one. “Wildflower is also really popular just because it’s kind of a basic one”. Natalie adds that it also depends on the season and on who is buying: “Japanese tourists always buy the tiny bears, like twelve of them. Russian people always buy basswood honey, because they have it in Russia a lot. We have regular customers. They’ll have allergies and they’ll come over and over again.”

Surprisingly, Andrew does not strive to expand the business or to increase sales: “I don’t want my business to grow. I like it like this. I like what I do, I am content and happy. I am not looking to become national.” On the contrary, he says “hopefully, it will be a little smaller. I am not getting younger and I work too much. Seven days a week.”  He does not see any competitors in other beekeepers: “A lot of people try to do what I do, but I haven’t noticed any impact.”

Andrew is satisfied with his life: “I can choose what I want to do and I have chosen beekeeping. I am happy to do it. I am not doing it for any other reasons.” As for the future, he is planning “to stay alive and to be a better person.”

Backgrounder: Union Square

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Union Square is located in Manhattan, it connects 14 street with 17 street (south to north) and Broadway and Park avenue south (west to east). Union Square is located on the periphery of several neighborhoods: the Flatiron District to the north, Chelsea to the west, Greenwich Village to the south, and Gramercy to the east. Union Square is historically and politically significant: a lot of protests and demonstrations took place there. It was named a National Historic Landmark in 1997 after it held the first Labour Day Parade. Greenmarket is my favorite thing about Union Square. Every week local farmers bring their organic produce to sell in the city.

Union Square is located in the southern part of Midtown, which is Manhattan Community District 6. The district covers 1.4 square miles. The total Population of the district is 142.745. There are 103.667 white people that live in this area, followed by 19.917 of Asians and the last one in the first three is Hispanic race which is 10.830 people.  The total housing units are 92.067. In recent years the population has grown substantially.

The five main interests of the district are: tourism, business and retail, restaurants and residential. Homelessness is a growing concern in its economic situation. NYCs tourism industry is centered in this area.

As far as the environment goes the main problems here are noise and air pollution due to traffic and busy lifestyle. This district has a number of parks (including Union Square Park) which are the showcase for the city and which are being cleaned and well-maintained (they should also be cleaned of the excessive commercial activity).

One of the buildings that belong to Beth Israel Hospital, one of the major hospitals, is located on Union Square (other hospitals that are located in this district are Joint Diseases, Veterans, Bellevue and NYU Langone Medical Center.