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| Fulton Street Fish Market - acrylic on canvas - 30" x 24" |
Established in 1822, it has experienced four major fires, flooding and the September 11th terrorist attacks, and through it all the fish were always sold.
Sometime in the 1930s, the market succumbed to corruption, and for more than 50 years was subject to mafia meddling, racketeering and extortion. The mob carefully entered every stage of the process to extract and extort money.
Here’s how it worked: corrupt loading companies commandeered city-owned parking spaces would charge high rents to the trucks delivering fish (although the Market is on the East River, boats were never used for deliveries). Other “separate” unloading companies had to be paid to transfer the products out of the trucks nd into the market. No one was allowed to carry their own product from their own trucks. If a seafood delivery company did not properly pay or bribe the unloading companies, the workers at the unloading company would slow down purposely, causing fish to warm and deteriorate. The mob also sub-leased spaces at exorbitant rates, often to multiple vendors at one time.
In his role as a Manhattan Federal Prosecutor, Rudy Giuliani took the first step against the mob, declaring a racketeering suit against the center. Later, as mayor, he proposed a city takeover and shortly after, in 1995, the Market mysteriously burned nearly to the ground along with many of the records.
The Fulton Fish Market officially moved to Hunts Point in 2005 under stricter city oversight and complete refrigeration.