La Marqueta, the marketplace under the Metro-North tracks in East Harlem, once boasted 510 vendors. Now there are only six.
Residents and community leaders are pushing for the redevelopment of the 73-year-old city-owned market to address the scarcity of fresh foods in a neighborhood where two in three adults are overweight or obese.
The few customers who still shop at La Marqueta always ask “How much?” But the merchants at the storied East Harlem market have just one question on their minds these days: “When?”
For years, promises of a major overhaul and expansion have swirled around the nearly defunct market, once a bustling center of activity in El Barrio. Behind a glass case in the middle of the city-owned market’s last functioning building are newspaper clippings from 2003, touting grand renovation plans. (more…)
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