It's so damned depressing that the Chelsea Flea Market is leaving. If you haven't heard yet, the 29 year old market on 6th Ave and 26th is being pushed out by Bonafide Estates, the realty company that owns the lot and plans to build a residential building there. Not that I spent much time there; I remember going once with my mom when I had a yen for a beaded lamp, only to discover that the beads heat up after ten minutes, and someone like me is bound to burn themselves on one eventually. Another time, I just happened to be in the neighborhood on a Saturday, and ended up staying at the market the whole afternoon, wove my way between tables, admired ceramic masks, dusty carpets, shoes, jewelry, cruddy leather, beautiful leather, and low price tags, and somehow ended up buying a creepy ceramic baby icon. Alan Boss, the man who started the market in 1976, is quoted in today's Village Voice saying: "We as Americans, having little or no culture, we figure that if you can build on two feet by four feet, you should have a building there, and screw anything that came before it." Full story here on the Village Voice website.
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