Who Cares How Romantic The Fish Is As Long As It’s Fresh?

The new version of the Fulton Fish Market is “hopelessly unromantic,” the fish tends to be fresher:

The forklifts that carry pallets of catfish, grouper, striped bass and other varieties of fresh fish and seafood used to run on gas. Now they run on batteries. The old market was outdoors, two blocks south of the Brooklyn Bridge. The new one is indoors and resembles not a market but an immense refrigerated warehouse, where the workers dress for winter year round, the décor is a brightly lit white-on-white and one of the closest landmarks is the Hunts Point Water Pollution Control Plant.

Yet these days, the mood in the New Fulton Fish Market is upbeat, as the three dozen wholesale seafood companies that moved into the 400,000-square-foot building last November adjust to life after South Street.

There is talk among the fish sellers of increased sales, smoother deliveries, fresher fish in the permanent 40-degree chill and happier customers. There is a marketing slogan (Fulton Fresh!) and a Web site (newfultonfishmarket.com), signs that fishmongering, an old-fashioned business that still operates on the faith of a handshake and the swing of a fish hook, has entered the 21st century. And, still, there are tales about the way it used to be, in the old market 13 miles away, the ramshackle home they traded for a windowless icebox that has proved to be good not for the soul, but good for the fish.

. . .

The market in Manhattan was a favorite of writers, artists and tourists, but the new site, in its out-of-the-way spot in the Bronx, is free of sightseers most days, though it is open to the public for a $5 visitor fee. It is a market for commerce, not romance, a place where it is easy to find boxes upon boxes of codfish from Maine, farm-raised striped bass from Texas and tuna from Brazil, but hard to find a seat to sit down.

. . .

Some of the market’s customers say they are more interested in the quality of the product than in the character of the building. Sandy Ingber, executive chef at Grand Central Oyster Bar and Restaurant in Grand Central Terminal and a longtime fish market buyer, said he preferred the new place to the old because of the constant refrigeration and cleanliness. A 10-person maintenance crew cleans and sanitizes the building daily.

“You can lick off the floor there almost,” Mr. Ingber said.

Sure, It May Seem Insignificant To Some . . .

The State Legislature finally has fixed one of the last really lame blue laws — Sunday morning liquor sales:

The State Legislature opened the final week of its regular session by agreeing to toughen drunken-driving laws. But lawmakers also agreed to allow beer sales earlier on Sunday mornings.

Those two agreements came on a day in which the Legislature failed to resolve the largest issues that divide lawmakers, or their disagreements with Gov. George E. Pataki, including restoring several hundred million dollars’ worth of budget cuts to hospitals and nursing homes, the structure of a new office to fight Medicaid fraud, and the Legislature’s billion-dollar-a-year property tax rebate. In fact, the Republican-led Senate and the Democrat-led Assembly seem unable even to agree on what day to end the session, Thursday or Friday.

Instead, they focused on some of the less contentious bills on their agenda, reaching agreement on a requirement that child safety alarms be installed in pools and on the measure that would allow beer sales starting at 8 a.m. instead of noon on Sundays, ending one of the last vestiges of the so-called blue laws that limit alcohol sales on Sundays.

Zabaristan Spring!

Eli Zabar may have shut down one potential competitor, but he can’t stop the inevitable march towards freedom:

High-end grocer Eli Zabar may have buried one proposed Upper East Side greenmarket, but another has sprung up only blocks away.

A Community Board 8 subcommittee voted 4-0 late Thursday to approve placement of a new greenmarket — which brings regional farmers and their produce to city dwellers — on 92nd Street and First Avenue.

Last month Zabar helped squash plans for a market on East 82nd Street and Madison Avenue because it would have provided too close competition for his stores E.A.T. on Madison Avenue and 80th Street, and Eli’s on Third Avenue and 80th.

At the latest meeting, Zabar was one of the voices against the new market, because of its proximity to one of his stores.

To Paraphrase Mel Brooks, It’s Good To Be Landlord!

Sobering economic analysis from the New York Press:

The Consumer Price Index, which tracks the effect of inflation on urban living expenses, jumped nearly one percent for NYC in the month of April alone according to various sources. The CPI for New York had risen less than three percent the entire previous year. This means everything here is costing more money. The rise in the CPI is fueled by the unstoppable escalation of oil prices and a parallel increase in the cost of rent. With gas and interest rates up, more people are renting, and fewer new homes are being built.

But it’s not all bad news:

This squeeze leaves Manhattan with another fun statistic, reported in The Daily News: a 0.67 percent vacancy rate for rentals. Landlords find themselves charging 9 percent more for a one-bedroom than they did last year, and they’re still turning hordes of people away; the sort of people who are scrambling for the chance to live in a city that promises only to bleed them dry once they move in.

The King Of Zabaristan Has Decreed It, And So It Is

The Zabar East Side Hegemony asserts itself, ensuring its top-dog status in the neighborhood:

A proposed green market on the Upper East Side has bought the farm — thanks to a scorched-earth campaign by high-end grocer Eli Zabar and some local residents.

Community Board 8 had voted last month to allow eight vendors to sell fruit, vegetables and cheese in the playground of PS 6 at East 82nd Street and Madison Avenue for a few hours on Saturdays.

But despite the vote, Tom Strumolo, of the Council on the Environment of New York, said yesterday he decided to seek another location after a meeting with residents.

“They were very adamantly opposed,” he said. “I was led to believe they would picket” the site.

“I didn’t want my growers to be subjected to that sort of behavior,” he said. “They have trusted me for many, many years to bring them into a place where they will be welcome.”

Zabar, who owns E.A.T. on Madison between 80th and 81st streets and Eli’s on Third and 80th Street, has been a vocal opponent.

He contended “that he’s trying to run a business and they would compete with his business,” said Board 8 President David Liston.

Pamela Matson, who has two children at PS 6, complained Zabar “owns the neighborhood.”

“I would love a green market,” she said. “A green market here is no messier than the kids.”

. . .

Zabar was in Europe and could not be reached for comment.

Bwahahahaha!