Alfonso Morales's blog

Gregg and I would like to welcome Miguel Granier to OPENAIR.ORG. Miguel has a MA in Urban Planning from Georgia Tech.

He is currently a Project Manager for Market Street Services in Atlanta. His experience is extensive, he was the Consulting Director of Operations at Appalachian Community Enterprises (ACE), a North Georgia based microfinance organization. Previously, as a Loan Consultant for ACCION New York, he helped secure loans for small business owners and entrepreneurs. He has also conducted several public seminars on managing credit and starting small businesses.

He will be blogging about markets, particularly indoor markets as well as street vendors in Atlanta and the Southeast. We hope he will help with questions on micro-credit, real estate, finance and insurance. We’re excited to add him to the team!

Here is a question from someone interested in creating farmers markets:

I am working on putting together innovative ideas the City of Seattle can use to gain permanent land tenure for local farmers markets. Options I have researched include public and private parking lots, as well as public street closure.

What I wanted to know from you, is if there were any new and exciting ideas/programs you could direct me to regarding this issue of permanent farmers market locations.

Here is my first response:

Here are a few thoughts:

First, regarding the politics of the process.

Have you a CBO or six to work with? They can help manage the politics of the process as well as help identify locations.

Have you a champion in the City to work with?

Please note the City of Chicago has had regular farmers markets for 27 years, see their webpage at: http://egov.cityofchicago.org/city/webportal/portalEntityHomeAction.do?entityName=Farmers+Markets&entityNameEnumValue=184

One thing to keep in mind is how to allocate space in the markets that are created. There are a number of ways to allocate space, some of which encourage experimentation with vending. Space allocation is VERY important and much more can be said about it.

Chicago is like many big cities that takes pride in self-sufficiency. Of course we all know how interdependent people and places are in our global economy. Goods and services traffic borders of all sorts, political and ecological. We also know that the big headlines are made by the big players, the freight cars rolling across the country, the goods transshipped up the Mississippi from Asian origins, but consider the farmer and his or her truck, Chicago certainly is.

Chicago is also taking pride in becoming a green city. A system of 24 farmer's markets has grown over the last 20-30 years, roadside stands proliferate across the metropolitan area. Farmers from as far away as Arkansas sell goods at these markets, but between gasoline prices constraining some farmers and the more positive desire of the City to promote local commerce, comes the invitation to Wisconsin farmers to join Chicago markets.

The City of Chicago recently organized a farm forum to answer questions and promote participation in the City's markets. With an interest in speciality food and fruit, and a large supply of both in Wisconsin, Illinois, Indiana and Michigan, the possibilities for direct sales are rapidly growing.

In the movie "Patch Adams" the lead character checks himself into a psychatric hospital, unable to see beyond his private malaise. But he is cured by another patient who helps him have a vision beyond the obvious. Storefront and street business and other parties in conflict need help developing a broader vision.

The New York Times reports that the Korean Merchants Association is upset at the prospects of 1000 new street vendors peddling produce in to the poor and those distant from grocery stores. Without a doubt the KMA is acting on its interest in reducing competition from other merchants, but why aren't the various parties, the City, the KMA and potential merchants, not negotiating for win-win solutions?

As 100 years ago, street vendors are called upon to provide access to inexpensive, fresh foods. The concerns then and now are similar, providing produce, enhancing dietary choice and reducing the distance to store-front merchants. The parties could take a lesson from 100 years ago when cities around the country also acknowledged the role street merchants and public markets played in reducing unemployment and providing income-earning opportunities that could eventually lead to new business or the skills and resources to join the workforce.

“It was the owners’ unwillingness to comply with repeated attempts to get counterfeiting activity out of the buildings that made us decide to go against them in this aggressive action,” concludes the article in the New York Times...and so goes the reputation of street merchants and markets where thousands of people, old and young, new immigrants and native born, earn their living or seek economic mobility for their families. But, is illegal merchandise pervasive among merchants and in markets? No, indeed, the stores raided in NYC harbored counterfeit merchandise, but a careful look at most vendors reveals the typical merchant avoids the illegal and obtains legitimate merchandise by hard work and carefully cultivated connections.