The hero of Billy Bathgate (1989) by E.L. Doctorow, set in the year before this photo was taken, is named for Bathgate Avenue in the Bronx. In one section of the novel, the teen narrator differentiates between the street vendors, with their pushcarts and open stalls, and the "aristocracy of the business" who had "real stores where you walked in and bought your chickens still in their feathers, or your fresh fish, or your flank steak, or milk and butter and cheese, or lox and smoked whitefish and pickles."

Both of my inflation calculators say that $.27 in 1936 translates to $6.30 today. That means it was fairly expensive at the bottom of the Great Depression.

was located at 1619 Bathgate Avenue, Bronx NY according to the 1940 NY Telephone Directory. JErome 7-7139. All gone now.

Somebody grab a broom - problem solved. Careful, don't sweep up that logo.

I would agree that the street was very messy and unkempt but all of the people are neatly and warmly dressed and do not appear to be living in squalor. Everyone has warm coats, hats and shoes, including the two school girls carrying their books through the crowd. People are even paying attention to the vendors selling their wares from sheets on the streets (they used pushcarts on the lower east side, even into the 1950's and 60's). By employing a street cleaner, this scene could be much tidier.

Looks like a staged street scene judging from the very nice clothing being worn by the people.

[That's normal garb for the period and circumstances. -tterrace]