Vacant Dragon Gate Market
Title
Vacant Dragon Gate Market
Description
A vacant Dragon Gate Market with empty stalls in Sara D. Roosevelt Park on the Lower East Side. Two people walk in the distance. In the back, there is a large mural painted on a brick building that features a dragon in front of a city skyline.
The market opened in 1994 as the city’s effort to centralize and marginalize Chinatown vendors, who then had to pay the Parks Department to lease their space. Many vendors also invested their life savings into the stalls they constructed. [1] After the city terminated the market’s lease in December 1998, vendors and members of CAAAV gathered in February 1999 to protest the eviction. While the State Supreme Court issued a temporary stay of the eviction to grant vendors additional time to pack up, the city eventually razed the stalls in March 1999. The Parks Department renovated the brick building, erasing the mural and retaining the name “Dragon’s Gate Comfort Station.” [2]
For more information, see: CAAAV Voice issue Fall 1999 (page 7); article “The Closure of Dragon Gate Market” in exhibit “Quality of Life: CAAAV’s Activism Against the Giuliani Administration’s Policing;" and item “Protestors with Arrest Giuliani Poster."
[1] “Chinatown Vendors Fight City’s Attacks” CAAAV Voice (Fall 1999): 7. Accessed October 19, 2024. 8bf58b30ba09cc4ad6d580d28fa12763.pdf (caaav.org)
[2]“New Life Breathed Into The Dragon’s Gate: Restroom And Central Communications Facility To Open” The Daily Plant, NYC Parks. May 4, 2001. Accessed October 19, 2024. https://prd2.nycgovparks.org/parks/transmitter-park/dailyplant/9339
The market opened in 1994 as the city’s effort to centralize and marginalize Chinatown vendors, who then had to pay the Parks Department to lease their space. Many vendors also invested their life savings into the stalls they constructed. [1] After the city terminated the market’s lease in December 1998, vendors and members of CAAAV gathered in February 1999 to protest the eviction. While the State Supreme Court issued a temporary stay of the eviction to grant vendors additional time to pack up, the city eventually razed the stalls in March 1999. The Parks Department renovated the brick building, erasing the mural and retaining the name “Dragon’s Gate Comfort Station.” [2]
For more information, see: CAAAV Voice issue Fall 1999 (page 7); article “The Closure of Dragon Gate Market” in exhibit “Quality of Life: CAAAV’s Activism Against the Giuliani Administration’s Policing;" and item “Protestors with Arrest Giuliani Poster."
[1] “Chinatown Vendors Fight City’s Attacks” CAAAV Voice (Fall 1999): 7. Accessed October 19, 2024. 8bf58b30ba09cc4ad6d580d28fa12763.pdf (caaav.org)
[2]“New Life Breathed Into The Dragon’s Gate: Restroom And Central Communications Facility To Open” The Daily Plant, NYC Parks. May 4, 2001. Accessed October 19, 2024. https://prd2.nycgovparks.org/parks/transmitter-park/dailyplant/9339
Date
Circa 1996-1999
Contributor
Digitized by: Cat Jung
Cataloged by: Tess Derby
Cataloged by: Tess Derby
Rights
Copyright is held by CAAAV Organizing Asian Communities.
Format
Photograph
Identifier
Photo578
Files
Citation
“Vacant Dragon Gate Market,” CAAAV Digital Archive, accessed November 6, 2024, https://archives.caaav.org/items/show/2370.