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NEIGHBORHOOD REPORT: EAST HARLEM; Yes, They Buy No Bananas, Is La Marqueta's Lament
Louis, King of Bananas, stands behind a row of familiar and yet unfamiliar fruit. Those roughly oblong objects with barklike skin are malanga, he says, and those other oblong items that look like turnips are gautia, from Puerto Rico. The king, whose real name is Louis Santana, explains that these foods should be boiled in soup, or cut up and fried. He also sells thick, spotted plantains from Puerto Rico, evergreen-colored pumpkins from Costa Rica and, of course, bananas. But Mr. Santana hasn't made a significant sale in weeks. His stall in La Marqueta, the once-bustling hub of market life in East Harlem, has few visitors these days. He remembers when the market was so full of vendors, about 400 at its peak, that it could take the whole afternoon to push through the entire complex. Back then, the market's five indoor buildings, which stretch from 111th to 116th Streets on Park Avenue underneath the Metro-North viaduct, were humming. But now only one building, at 115th Street, is still open. Yesterday, Mr. Santana lamented, he earned just $12. One day last week, he made $3.50. "There's more business in a cemetery than there is here," he said. The city's Economic Development Corporation hopes to change that. By June 1, Best Farms Produce, a company that has run a successful business at the Essex Street Market downtown, will take over about a third of the 115th Street portion of La Marqueta, said Bruce Brodoff, a spokesman for the Economic Development Corporation. As a result, for the first time in years, the 115th Street part of the market will be fully occupied. Last week, the city also hired a new manager for La Marqueta to improve marketing. The first in a series of holiday promotional events will take place on Mother's Day, May 14. There will also be several musical events, arts and crafts shows and exhibits in the coming months. "We anticipate that there will be a significant increase in the number of shoppers," Mr. Brodoff said. The East Harlem Chamber of Commerce is also working on plans to reinvigorate the market. Henry Calderon, president of the chamber, said that instead of focusing on products that can be purchased elsewhere in East Harlem, the market should be revamped as something unusual, like a tourist shopping area. "Its time has passed," he said. "The pushcart vendors were put there under Mayor La Guardia. You cannot go back to what it used to be." Meanwhile Mr. Santana, who started working in the stalls when he was 8, remembers the early boom years. He also recalls the decline of the market in the 1970's as merchants on Lexington Avenue began to draw business away, and he watched as the city tried to renovate and revive the market in 1996. As change looms for La Marqueta again, Mr. Santana is a little wary. "They come to the market from time to time and promise everything," he said. "But they never do anything." 
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