“If you are supporting Red Hook business owners, they then go food shopping here and buy their kids clothes here and spend their money in the community,” said Ms. Alexander, the market organizer. “We are creating a more robust economic neighborhood.”

Mermaid sprinkles and American flags

The Rockaways, Queens

“Calling all local sellers,” wrote Tabytha Flynn on the Friends of Rockaway Beach Facebook Group in November. “I thought it’d be nice to have a post where creative locals can post what they make in the comments!”

Over 100 people ended up commenting, many of whom Ms. Flynn had never heard of. “You know those wooden American flags? I always see them on Etsy, and I didn’t realize someone in the Rockaways actually made them,” she said. “My husband bought one already, but these are way nicer.”

Ms. Flynn is buying most of her gifts from this list of suggestions. Her favorite: mermaid-shaped sprinkles for her 3-year-old to use in her princess-themed cooking class. She didn’t even have to pay for shipping: “The woman who makes them dropped them off in my mailbox the next day.”

Elizabeth Hanna used to own a hardware shop in the Rockaways and knows firsthand how difficult it is for independent shops to operate during a crisis, as she did in the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy. “It all became too much,” she said. “It was physically and mentally draining.”

So in March she started a Facebook group called RBNY: Rockaway Businesses Need You to help relieve some pressure.

Source: New York Times

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