I Love NYC Street Fairs, 2018 Edition
There will be 166 street fairs in Manhattan this year… down just a hair from 168 last year. But really, who’s counting? They’re still great fun for those of us who love street food and cheap wallets and people watching. (And still an annoyance for cab drivers and others who find them a hindrance to getting around town.) Here, once again, is my annual Manhattan Street Fair schedule and map. As always, the information is here to help you find them or avoid them, depending on your inclination. And, of course, I once again include the standard disclaimers. The information is presented as is, without...
I Love NYC Street Fairs, 2017 edition
Another year, come and gone, with no posts. Some day, I’ll figure out what this blog is for–but until then, it makes a good home for my annual Manhattan Street Fair schedule and map. As always, the information is here to help you find them or avoid them, depending on your inclination. And, of course, I once again include the standard disclaimers. The information is presented as is, without any warranties, and always with the possibility that the event producers may change their plans at the last minute. There are a few outer-borough fairs, mainly gay prides. If anyone is interested in adding in a more...
I Love NYC Street Fairs, 2016 edition
This, unfortunately, has become my annual post to my old blog. But at least I write that much. It’s time again, ladies and gentlemen, to remind you of my annual effort at compiling and presenting all of Manhattan’s street fairs for the year. As always, the information is here to help you find them or avoid them, depending on your inclination. And, of course, I once again include the standard disclaimers. The information is presented as is, without any warranties, and always with the possibility that the event producers may change their plans at the last minute. Also, tracking just Manhattan’s street fairs is enough...
I Love NYC Street Fairs, 2015 edition
Love ’em or hate ’em. If you live in New York City–particularly, in Manhattan–you cannot escape them. From May through October, there are at least three of four every weekend–sometimes more. With several exceptions, they all have the same food vendors (sometimes with four or five booths scattered along a single fair!). They all have the same craft-and-T-shirt booths. But they are also–to me–a lot of fun. I go to at least two a month for the fresh-cut watermelon and/or mango, for the Mozzarepas, and for the unparalleled people watching. But it’s okay with me if you hate them, find them disruptive, whatever. This map...
I Love NYC Street Fairs, 2014 edition
Whether, like me, you love street fairs or, like some New Yorkers, you hate them, this is the only map I know of that collects all of Manhattan’s street events into one place so you can find (or avoid) them. This year’s NYC Street Fair map looks quite a bit different from previous years: Google’s newly-launched Maps Engine was intended to make creating your own map–like my annual NYC street fair map–simpler and more powerful. But in practice, it meant essentially re-doing my map from scratch (almost) to produce something that, in the end, would be more cluttered and confusing for the user. So...
I Love NYC Street Fairs, 2013 edition
Another spring has arrived with its showers sweet, and so has another edition of my annual New York City Street Fair Map and List. Full Google My Map with event listings in chronological order Like last year, I made this year’s map by editing the previous year’s. But to fix some glitches, I actually hand edited the kml file. Now the dates and other descriptive material will (I hope) appear correctly in the mobile version of Google Maps, and the color codes for each month will be consistent. For those viewing the map in Google Maps Mobile, please note that only the 100 events closest...
I Love NYC Street Fairs, 2012 edition
I still love New York City street fairs, and I still find these maps very handy for getting my weekly dose, so I wanted to make one for 2012. There’s a lot of work involved in collating the dates and locations from several web sites, and there’s no straightforward way around that. But I was hoping to at least automate the process of mapping that data. I looked around at several different systems for doing this and concluded that Google Fusion Tables would be the best tool. It comes in two tiers: simple UI platform and more a complex and powerful API platform. Unfortunately, I...
Ode to a Mozzarepa
In my previous entry explaining my love affair with New York City street fairs, I somehow forgot to mention the Mozzarepa. This distinctly New York innovation (someone please correct me if I’m wrong) is basically a variation on the popular Latin American staple, the arepa. It’s a round slice of pizza-type melty mozzarella cheese between two sweet cornmeal pancakes. A salty-sweet treat that can’t be beat. I’ve never seen them anywhere but New York street fairs, and they’re yet another reason I look forward to my near-weekly excursion. Several street vendors do knock-offs, but they’re often left on the griddle until they singe, or the...
I Love NYC Street Fairs
Not every New Yorker enjoys our street fairs. In fact, a lot of us hate them. Every season, the New York City papers are filled with stories about what a nuisance they are. With two or three running simultaneously each weekend day during the summer, the street fairs snarl traffic and displace parking spaces. And, it’s said, they’re all the same, with the same vendors pushing the same merchandise. City government here has recently responded to citizen complaints with a plan to reduce the number and operating hours of the fairs. Activist groups are also pushing for greater variety among and within the fairs. But,...