When the city announced plans to establish an outdoor vendors market in Sara D. Roosevelt Park, Yu Shi Hua was thrilled. A peddler illegally selling socks, lighters and batteries, Mr. Hua was tired of running from the police and shop owners angry at the hordes of vendors who crowded Chinatown's sidewalks, often blocking entrances to stores and restaurants.
But Roosevelt Market, which opened with great fanfare in October 1993 at Chrystie and Grand Streets, has been nothing but a disappointment for Mr. Hua and dozens of vendors who each pay $350 a month for a space roughly five by six feet. Soon after, the Grand Street subway station closed, depriving the market of a major source of customers. Once a large public wading pool, the market area has no running water, inadequate drainage, no place for vendors to store merchandise or display carts. Illegal vendors who pay nothing to display their wares still crowd nearby streets.
This has been poorly managed from the beginning so we barely make any money," said Mr. Hua, one of only five vendors who showed up last Tuesday. The market can accommodate 125.
University Settlement, a nonprofit social service organization that ran the market, abandoned the project two weeks ago, admitting it was not up to the job. The Parks Department will oversee it until a new operator is found. Zheng Hua Jian, a lo mein vendor, works from 7 A.M. to midnight at Roosevelt Market every day, taking home $1,000 to $1,500 a month. "If done right, this could be Chinatown's No. 1 tourist attraction," he said. "We'd all get rich and everyone would be happy." ANDREW JACOBS
Photo: Yu Shi Hua, right, one of the few street vendors left atChinatown's Roosevelt Market. (Michelle V. Agins/The New York Times)
