Openair is growing and becoming more functional thanks to JEO.NET a terrific ISP. We owe them a big thank-you for the migration and new look of the page.

We have new editors from other parts of the world, Sean Balkan from New York City and Lilia Voronkova from Russia. We remain thankful to Steve Balkin, without whom OPENAIR would not exist, and John Cross for their support and well-wishes.

Gregg Kettles, a law professor at Mississippi College of Law, and I are, with the help of JEO, fostering more functionality to the site. We aim for the same or greater levels of utility to the professional community of planners and social scientists, lawyers and economists, while increasing the usefulness to merchants and consumers at these markets, around the world.

Consider joining us in our work on Markets and Merchants!

Street vendors may be on the lowest rung of capitalism, but they are still on the ladder. Downtown business groups and local governments might see vendors and markets as a problem to be regulated, restricted or eliminated from the streets, but they simply attacking their kin.

Some vendors, those with the lowest overhead display merchandise in briefcases or portfolios, they spread blankets, use a hydrant or a trash can as a place to mark their space, but they are mobile and move to where they find the customer. Food vendors are also often employees. These nascent entrepreneurs take a basket of burritos, fruit, a cooler of drinks and provide fellow employees and passers-by with a bite to eat, either within the workplace but more likely from close by during a break in the day. Perhaps an empty lot has become a magnet for pushcarts or more elaborate displays. Merchants create their own infrastructure, protecting themselves and clients from the elements and allowing them to do business and people to shop.

Location(s)
197317 Fermskoe shosse
Saint-Petersburg
Russia

A Russian flee market – what is it? In St-Petersburg there exists one very unique market, the flee market Udelniy. The market is interesting for many reasons: It is the only market of it’s kind in the city as all other flea markets have been closed by local government within the last 5-7 years. Udelniy emerged in the soviet times and existed illegally for about 50 years. During the hard times of Perestroika many dwellers of Petersburg and suburbs survived and supported their families through selling goods at this flea market. Many of them still are selling there; they need it, they love it. To them Udelniy is more than a market; it is their way of life.

The city council of Detroit, Michigan recently loosened restrictions on sidewalk vending in the Motor City. Previously vending was limited to certain areas-- downtown and the Wayne State University area-- and vendors were limited to vending only hot dogs, balloons, flowers, fruit, hand-drawn portraits or caricatures, and snack foods. Now vendors will be allowed to apply for licenses to sell anywhere in the city, and the list of approved items has been expanded to include handbags, sunglasses and wallets, crafts, coffee, clothing, and fragrances and incense.

The new law drew protest from a number of merchants. They shouldn't worry. Vending in Detroit remains highly regulated. A vendor may not sell within 100 feet of a competing business, and is required to provide a trash receptacle for customers and pick up all trash (whatever the source) within 15 feet of her vending spot. Vendors are prohibited from interfering with the movement of pedestrians or blocking storefront display windows.