“There is nothing like a grand urban food market, which can anchor a neighborhood and even a city. Think of the 120-year-old Reading Terminal Market in Philadelphia; the Ferry Building in San Francisco, which 10 years ago helped revitalize the Embarcadero; and the ever-popular Pike Place Market in Seattle. Even much-maligned Los Angeles has a permanent mid-city market, in business since 1934.

New York … well, the grandest market ‘we’ have is 80 miles away, in Philadelphia.”

Mark Bittman talks about public markets in the New York Times, and the hopes that Manhattan will someday get one as good as Philly’s Reading Terminal Market