Due to awkward location, complex construction requirements, and problematic financing, I don't support the Barlow Development. But one part of that proposal does appeal to me: a year-round farmers market, which I'd like to see in a central Sebastopol location, such as one of the city-owned parking lots.
I believe there's widespread support for a year-round market. Wouldn't constructing it outside the flood zone be simpler and more affordable than constructing it inside the flood zone?
Tara Treasurefield
Food for thought?
all year 24/7
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Iconic market thrives amid skyscrapers
Updated: Thursday, September 22, 2011 10:26 AM
Pike Place Market keeps fresh produce as centerpiece of tourist attraction
By STEVE BROWN (
[email protected])
Capital Press
SEATTLE -- Attracting 10 million visitors a year, the Northwest's most famous farmers' market has been a fixture at Pike Place since a muddy morning in August 1907.
"This is a concept born out of desperation," market master Teri Wheeler said.
Farmers claimed middlemen were paying them too little for their produce, and consumers complained food prices were too high. As prices spiked, a city councilman and a newspaper publisher set the stage for a grand experiment: farmers selling directly to consumers.
Fewer than a dozen farmers wheeled their carts to Seattle's waterfront, but thousands of customers showed up. The farmers knew they had something special.
That experiment has grown into a market boasting 50 farmers on a busy day, surrounded by flower growers, entertainers, craftspeople and food booths, much like any other farmers' market in small-town America.
But some things set Pike Place Market apart. Besides the market, the Pike Place Market Preservation and Development Authority includes a senior center, food bank, child care and preschool, clinic, low-income housing, and permanent commercial enterprises that bring in a combined $13.1 million a year in income and has operating expenses of $9.8 million, senior accountant Jay Shallow said.
The market generated $11 million in sales in July alone, he said. It brings in about $1 million a year in stall rent, cooler and locker rent and other fees charged to vendors, according to the authority's budget.
In this bustling urban setting, the market keeps fresh produce as its centerpiece, encouraging the presence of farmers from across the state, Wheeler said.
Some arrive by 6:30 a.m. to set up, especially if they're from out of town, and everyone is required to sell from 10 to 4, she said.
Flower farmers, who number in the dozens, are also encouraged to bring produce.
"The ones who bring in at least five varieties get a 12-foot space instead of an 8-foot space at no extra cost," Wheeler said. "And if they bring in 8 feet of produce, they get a free parking pass."
Everything comes down at night, both the day stalls outside and the stalls in the arcade.
The day stalls can sell only products made or grown by the person who rents the space.
"We have very strict rules concerning supplements to added-value products," she said. "Everything must come from the farm, so we have very few added-value products there."
In the permanent indoor stalls are commercial tenants. One of those, Sosio's Fruit and Produce, was started in 1930 by "Grandpa Sosio" Manzo, Wheeler said.
"We buy from farmers, as many small farmers as I can. We make sure shoppers know where the produce comes from by putting farmers' names on their product," said Mike Osborn, who bought the stand from Sosio Manzo's grandson.
Some grow especially for Sosio's, he said. "We also buy from farmers displaying here. I'll support a local farmer before I'll buy from a warehouse."
Nothing goes to waste. Farmers donate 50,000 pounds of unsold produce each year to the Pike Place food bank, Wheeler said.
No public money goes into the operation of the market, Wheeler said.
Near-extinction event
One major hiccup in the growth of Pike Place Market came in 1942, when President Franklin D. Roosevelt's Executive Order 9066 led to the incarceration of 110,000 Americans of Japanese ancestry.
The number of farmer-sellers at the market dropped precipitously. In 1939, 515 Japanese-American farmers sold at the market; in 1949, there were 53.
The resulting decline in business nearly led to the market's demise in the 1950s and '60s. The city proposed redeveloping the area as a plaza with a hotel, office buildings and a hockey arena.
But in a 1971 public initiative, voters chose to preserve Pike Place Market. In particular, the market was instructed to preserve its original focus on fresh produce and local farmers. Among the rules, commercial businesses were -- and still are -- required to be small and owner-operated. Starbucks' first cafe began serving its famous coffee there in 1971.
In 1973, the city chartered the Pike Place Market Preservation and Development Authority to manage most of the properties in the Market Historical District.
-- Steve Brown (
[email protected])
By the numbers
Visitors annually: 10 million
Pounds of ice used per day in high season: 19,000
People served by the food bank: 500
People served daily at the senior center: 110
Organized school tours annually: 50
Footprint in acres: 9
Contacts
www.pikeplacemarket.org (https://www.pikeplacemarket.org)
Teri Wheeler:
[email protected]
Sosio's: 206-622-1370