In 2012, the fairgrounds took in $6,700 in rent and commissions from tobacco and pipe vendors.
Then called the Sheffield57, the project was plagued by lawsuits, a mountain of debt, defaulted loans, liens on apartments, leaky pipes, unpaid vendors refusing to complete renovations, electrical and elevator problems, and, at one point, the possibility that no oil would be delivered because the heating bills were unpaid.
(See "Cisco's Pipe Dreams").. Given that Cisco is already the largest vendor of Internet networking equipment, that positions it as an arms dealer in the brewing video-conferencing war.
Vapes, pipes, bongs, grinders, memorabilia, and munchies spilled from hundreds of vendor booths.
I drew exhaust-pipe fitters and stovemakers, pigeon sellers and Hajji Mirwais, a sewing-machine vendor.
When Plains dug up and investigated sections of pipe with signs of corrosion they did not share those direct field measurements with the vendor in charge of the internal inspection.
Decades of pipe dreams and political intrigue have turned it into a ghost town, where only six vendors occupy a tiny corner where few customers venture.
Nimo Siddique, mother of five, who received the pipe connection in her home two years ago, said that before having the water tap, she used to buy water from vendors who traveled with their water trucks around the town.
"As a resident, I don't want to step on trash, and I don't want vendors selling hash pipes outside my door".
A vendor selling vegetables from a small table, listening to American rap music on a radio and smoking a long hash pipe, even offered us a puff.
