NYC-WTC_000230652

NYC 9/11 Public Portal Document

Fish Company. "The city thinks they’re helping us. But over all this location is killing us. If we can get t {rack home, we want to get back home yesterday.” *; The wholesalers were scheduled to . move to a new location in the Bronx in 2003, but construction on that / ( project will not begin until later this fall, city officials said. For now, they Will have to endure the parking lot. "We’ve got no problem with the temporary move," said Tony Cirillo, EC president of Local 359 of the United Food and Commercial Workers, the union that represents the 400 jour­ z neymen and salesmen at the fish stalls. “We’re Americans and we jyanl to do our part. But enough is enough. The New York Stock Ex­ change is back open for business, for o pete’s sake. How about us?” '■ Because business is so bad, Mr. Cirillo said, 50 of his men have been aid off and more job losses are ex­ pected next week. ' "These are good jobs,” he said. 'This whole thing has a negative I H est in the United States, solvent, and kets rather than take their chances “Have you ever seen Fulton Mar­ nd Yet another- that every effort is being made to get in the Bronx during the dark mom- ket?” the official said. "It always G

I the Fulton Fish Market back up and ing hours, the salesmen said. looks filthy at the end of the selling aftershock: South running. Judging by the sanitary conditions day.” “There was no electricity or tele­ of the temporary fish house, one can- There is also the economic health Street is needed ‘for phones and Lower Manhattan was not blame them. The quarters are of tht! old neighborhood to consider. immobilized,” Ms. Patterson said. wretched. Rodent droppings line the Carmine’s restaurant, at Front and O the relief effort.* “At this point. South Street is an walls. Exhaust fumes from the fork­ Beekman Streets, and a favorite of : -S market hands, has lost most of its

I H _ artery needed tor the relief effort, lifts mingle with the fish. The floors Hl and it’s hard to say when we’ll be are a slop of mud and oil. food business, the owner reports. The few toilets are filthy, and there Thiin there is Annie, a pillar of the 1^ able to move them back.” Fulton Fish Market. She earns a trickle-down on families and the The market operates like an open- are only a few hoses to wash down GJ meager living selling newspapers the entire 50,OQO square feet of indoor BS s city.” air auction house, except there are cooler and storage space. The equip; and socks and cigarettes. She has no Some people at the market say no barkers and no tote boards to pension. What happened to Annie, the Mayor Giuliani is using a national reflect supply and demand. Prices ment at the temporary market in­ men asked yesterday morning. O emergency to punish them for their are set by the Individual consignees cludes 20 diesel trucks used for re­ Around 4 a.m., she arrived by car long-running resistance to his au­ and are determined by a strange frigeration, 15 portable spotlights service. They were glad to see her O o thority. Mr. Giuliani effectively combination of weather reports, fish­ and a handful of outhouses. One until someone figured it out. crushed the influence of organized ermen’s gossip and the prices at the truck recently malfunctioned and r<3 I crime at the Fulton Fish Market in neighboring stalls. $13,000 worth of seafood was lost "Annie’s here?” he said. “Oh, God. o o the mid-1990’s, requiring licensing The men still come to work at overnight. That means we're here to stay.” o (-1 and background checks on workers, midnight, as they have for a century. A city official who works with the co which forced more than a dozen com­ Their language is rough and blasphe­ market seemed content with the cleanliness of the Hunts Point loca- You can order CaJ panies out of business- mous. But many buyets, who come o City officials say the move is noth­ from as far away as South Jersey tion, saying the area is power- The Times Book Review ing more than an emergency meas­ and northern Connecticut, are going washed daily and the garbage is by mail. ure to keep the fish market, the larg- to the Philadelphia and Boston mar- picked up. A great gift idea! GJ

NYC-WTC_000230653