Fishmongers of the Essex Street Market

Whether you’re looking for salmon, tilapia, porgy, or mussels, fishmongers at the Essex Street Market have got you covered. Step inside the market today and you find two stalls selling fish, Rainbo Fish and New Star Fish Market, both of which are family-owned and operated with roots in the market going back decades.

And like most fish sellers – whether they are retailers, restaurants, or supermarkets – these market vendors get most of their product from a single source, the Fulton Fish Market. Being a seaport city, fish has always been an important part of New York’s economy and culture. Opened in 1817, the Fulton Fish Market was a sprawling complex hosting fishermen, wholesalers, and buyers in Lower Manhattan. The market became a major target of Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia’s efforts to reform and modernize the city’s food distribution system. In 1935, the mayor wrested control of the market from the Department of Docks and placed it instead in the hands of the Department of Public Markets, to work in concert with the city’s growing network of retail and terminal markets, and in 1939, the New Market Building opened at the end of Fulton Street.>> Continue reading

Noah Chesnin of NY Aquarium Joins Brooklyn Waterfront Tour August 22

We are now three weeks in to our Brooklyn Waterfront Past & Present Tour series, and our guest speakers so far have been spectacular. Nate Kensinger was able to recall how almost every inch of the Brooklyn, Greenpoint, and Newtown Creek waterfronts have changed over the 10 years that he has been photographing, filming, and researching New York City’s industrial edges. Emily Manley helped us understand why the Gowanus Canal is so troubled, and how the state, federal, and local regulatory agencies work together to clean up the site, and hopefully there are now a few more readers of the New York Environment Report.

For week three, we are again heading north up the East River and the Newtown Creek with Noah Chesnin, Policy Program Manager for the New York Seascape Program at Coney Island’s New York Aquarium, who will share with us his work in conservation, education, and policy connected to the marine wildlife and habitats of the greater New York region.>> Continue reading

New York Environment Report’s Emily Manley Joins Brooklyn Waterfront Tour August 15

For each of our Brooklyn Waterfront, Past & Present Tours, our guides will be joined by different guest speakers who have worked in some capacity along the New York City waterfront, sharing their perspectives on topics ranging from industry and manufacturing to resiliency planning to marine ecology. For our tour on Saturday, August 15, our guest will be Emily Manley, managing editor of the New York Environment Report. If you can’t make that tour, her NYER colleague Sarah Crean will be joining the tours on September 19 and October 10 (see a complete list of guest speakers).>> Continue reading