Another Farmers Market on Sundays? Devisive and unneeded...

[applefan]

The Sunday Farmers Market is a community builder....we meet our friends, we meet our farmers, we share a meal - it's a joyful event every week. Now a "rival" group, whose motives I think are questionable, wants to start another one on the same day, using the argument that more is better and more access is better. Why didn't they ask for a different day instead of trying to force us to choose? This is a community-destroying and probably vindicitive move. come to the planning meeting on August 28th to learn more and voice your opinion.

[AllorrahBe]

Personally, I believe having a market on Saturday or in the evening during the week would serve the community better, and could also be a destination/attraction for tourists in the area to learn about the local farm produce ~ and have dinner in the restaurant!

I attend a church on the other side of Santa Rosa and rarely get back to Sebastopol in time to shop at the existing market... now, I'll miss both of these great opportunities to buy local, eat local! I end up having to drive over to Andy's, but French Garden is only about 3 blocks from my home and I'd love to be able to shop there.

I do hope something can be worked out so we all win!
Rev. BE

The Sunday Farmers Market is a community builder....we meet our friends, we meet our farmers, we share a meal - it's a joyful event every week. Now a "rival" group, whose motives I think are questionable, wants to start another one on the same day, using the argument that more is better and more access is better. Why didn't they ask for a different day instead of trying to force us to choose? This is a community-destroying and probably vindicitive move. come to the planning meeting on August 28th to learn more and voice your opinion.

[Barry]

Letter to the Arts Center regarding farmers markets - by Whitney McEvoy, Irene Gillooly and Susan Falbo

https://www.sonomawest.com/sonoma_we...a4bcf887a.html

Dear Ms. Galletta, Mr. Brent, Officers and Members of the Board of Directors for the Sebastopol Center for the Arts,

In light of the recent announcement that the Sebastopol Center for the Arts will be sponsoring a new Farmers Market in direct competition to the existing market, we are writing with great concern for the future of the existing Sebastopol Farmers Market.

In the interest of full disclosure, we are partners in a local business that sells at the Sebastopol Market and the Santa Rosa Original Farmers Market (now at the Wells Fargo Center for the Arts). Both of these markets have been targeted by local businessman Dan Smith’s Redwood Empire Market in the last year. Mr. Smith’s group took over the lease of the Santa Rosa Original Farmers Market, which had been doing business at the Santa Rosa Vet’s Center for about 40 years, forcing a move which is costing every vendor a good percentage of their yearly income, inconveniencing customers and stirring up deeply divisive interactions within the community.

He is now proposing to compete with the Sebastopol Farmers Market by staging a market on the new Sebastopol Art Center site on the same day and during the same hours as the existing market. We have seen this situation unfold before and feel the consequences for the Sebastopol area will be worse than in Santa Rosa, if for no other reason than it is a smaller and more closely-knit community. It might be instructive to take a look at the experience of the town of Sonoma and its farmers markets. Deeply divided and bitter politics split that community and quite nearly torpedoed both markets several years ago; neither of which has fully recovered yet.

In a recent article in Sonoma West Times & News (“Sebastopol to get 2nd farmers market,” July 26) Mr. Cary, a member of Mr. Smith’s core group, likens having two markets open on the same day and at the same time to having Whole Foods and Safeway open at the same time.

But a thriving Farmers Market is not a less structured version of a supermarket. It is a carefully curated event, comprised of individuals who produce what they sell, joined in community, with personal relationships between participating vendors, and vendors and their customers. We see each other every weekend, we customize our products and our services, and we try and act conscientiously toward each other with an eye not just to our current profit, but also to our impact on the welfare of our community long-term.

In addition, Farmers Markets can be effective incubators for small businesses. Those of us who have a good idea or product but little to no capital, can reach our local community for feedback and, if well received, grow our businesses and employ more people and funnel money back into local circulation. It is not in the interests of the community to create conditions in which small businesses such as ours cannot make a reasonable profit on our efforts.

While it is quite true that there are more farmers/vendors who wish to sell than there are currently places for at the existing market, the Sebastopol Farmers Market is slated to move to the new Barlow Center as soon as it is finished this fall. This move will allow for many more vendors as well as shelter during inclement weather and parking for our customers — something that is as scarce as hen’s teeth in downtown Sebastopol. The Barlow Center looks to be a welcome economic engine for Sebastopol, with a well run, established Farmers Market as one of its major features. Mr. Smith’s ill-thought-out action may well harm this new community asset just as it is taking off.

If — as the Redwood group claims — beginning a new market is intended to serve farmers and vendors and parts of the community not currently served, why do they not open a market at the Center for the Arts on a different day? That could truly be a community service worth pursuing.

Our experience over the years is that the Center for the Arts has been an expansive and creative force, not only in Sebastopol but for the whole area, and we are sure that the intent is to remain such a force in the future. It is in light of this assessment that we request that those who lead the Center take a second look at sponsoring this new market in its current incarnation and reconsider being an inadvertent partner to such a divisive force.

Please feel free to contact us and other vendors for further information and dialogue.

Whitney McEvoy, Irene Gillooly, and Susan Falbo are co-owners of Not Yer Momma’s Granola for more information, e-mail to [email protected].

[Dustyg]

I don't see why we cannot support more than one farmer's market...the population of Sebastopol is between 7,750 and 8,100 and many of us cannot afford to shop at our current farmer's market because it is just too expensive...it costs more than any market in Sebastopol including Whole Foods and Pacific. Those of us with small incomes would like to eat fresh, locally grown produce too!

Letter to the Arts Center regarding farmers markets - by Whitney McEvoy, Irene Gillooly and Susan Falbo

https://www.sonomawest.com/sonoma_we...a4bcf887a.html

Dear Ms. Galletta, Mr. Brent, Officers and Members of the Board of Directors for the Sebastopol Center for the Arts,

In light of the recent announcement that the Sebastopol Center for the Arts will be sponsoring a new Farmers Market in direct competition to the existing market, we are writing with great concern for the future of the existing Sebastopol Farmers Market.

...

[Barry]

I've split of the posts about prices into a new thread:

Prices at Farmer's Markets vs Grocery Stores

Let's keep this thread focused an issue of an additional farmer's market.

[Orm Embar]

I, too, would love a farmer's market on a weekday evening. . . . starting at 3:30 or 4pm so I could go there after school pick-up. I want to shop at the farmer's market more often but have only been able to attend twice this year due to weekend time constraints.

cheers,
Larkin

Personally, I believe having a market on Saturday or in the evening during the week would serve the community better, and could also be a destination/attraction for tourists in the area to learn about the local farm produce ~ and have dinner in the restaurant!

Rev. BE

[Barry]

I'm happy to report that

the application for the 2nd Farmer's Market on Sunday's has been withdrawn!

More information about that will be forthcoming...

[Barry]

Second Sebastopol farmers market put on ice
https://www.sonomawest.com/sonoma_we...a4bcf887a.html

Posted: Wednesday, August 15, 2012 1:02 pm
by David Abbott Sonoma West Editor [email protected]

REFM withdraws application for Vet’s Hall location

Sebastopol’s planning commission will have to find something else to do with its time on Aug. 28, as the application for the proposed farmers market at the Sebastopol Veteran’s Hall — soon to be the location of the Center for the Arts — has been withdrawn by the Redwood Empire Farmers Markets (REFM).

“We’ve withdrawn our application,” said REFM President Rob Cary. “It’s not clear how we’re going to move forward at the moment.”

The announcement in late July that there would be a new market at the site adjacent to Ives Park generated a buzz in the community, with many questioning the motives behind the proposal. Several members of REFM, including treasurer Dan Smith and founding members Nancy Prebilich and Nancy Holland, had been denied spaces at both the Santa Rosa and Sebastopol farmers markets by market manager Paula Downing.

Others questioned whether Sebastopol could support two farmers markets on one day, if at all.

Cary expressed confidence that a second farmers market would benefit Sebastopol. “This is going to be a great addition to downtown Sebastopol. … We want more farmers making more money and more people getting more and better food,” Cary wrote in a press release announcing the market, likening farmers markets to grocery stores, saying that, “In the West County, (Sebastopol is) the supermarket.”

But Whitney McEvoy, Irene Gillooly and Susan Falbo of Not Yer Momma’s Granola disputed that comparison in a commentary in Sonoma West Times & News (“Letter to the Arts Center regarding farmers markets,” Aug. 9.

“A thriving Farmers Market is not a less structured version of a supermarket,” they wrote, “It is a carefully curated event, comprised of individuals who produce what they sell, joined in community, with personal relationships between participating vendors, and vendors and their customers. … We customize our products and our services, and we try and act conscientiously toward each other with an eye not just to our current profit, but also to our impact on the welfare of our community long-term.”

The trio posited that a competing market would not increase access to fresh food, but would act as a divisive influence on the community and harm local farmers and small businesses.

Downing echoed that sentiment, saying that Santa Rosa’s Original Farmers Market, now located at the Wells Fargo Center for the Arts, is still recovering from its travails over the past year.

“It’s divisive. A farmers market is a social event and having two markets will hurt in the long run and in the short run,” she said. “We’ve been through this in Santa Rosa. It really hurts because the level of income is so low.” Downing was referring to REFM’s successful take over of the farmers market venue at the Santa Rosa Veterans Hall, which earlier this year forced Dowling to move her farmers market to the Wells Fargo Center.

Downing said that her vendors in Santa Rosa, who make $300 to $1,000 per day, who she said have been losing about 20 percent of their income since the markets split earlier this year.

She also believes that the space at the Sebastopol Veteran’s Hall could be better used to host fundraisers that could make more money for the Arts Center.

“A market isn’t going to make money for the Center for the Arts,” she said. “I say let’s work together and do something collaborative and figure out a way to co-exist.”

In a newsletter dated July 29 and distributed at the Sebastopol Farmers Market, Downing said that the proposed market was a “personal vendetta” against her by Smith. She offered to resign if he would “discontinue harming so many people.”

Prebilich, who along with Holland of Gleason Ranch in Bodega incorporated the non-profit REFM in April 2011, distanced herself from the actions of Cary and Smith, saying that they moved forward with the proposed Sebastopol market without consulting the REFM board, which is composed of 11 board members. Of those, seven were appointed from the community and four elected by the vendors.

“We’re not focusing on Sebastopol, we’re in Santa Rosa recovering from what’s taken place,” she said. “All I want and all the vendors want is a protected opportunity to sell our product.”

She added that Cary’s press release came as a surprise to many of the vendors of the REFM Santa Rosa market that occupies the space at the Santa Rosa Veteran’s Hall.

But as of Tuesday, for the foreseeable future, the structure of the competing markets will remain the same, although, according to Cary, there is now an opportunity for a dialog about the issue.

“We think that it has started a discussion as to how to get more farmers into farmers markets,” Cary said, adding, “There’s more than one way to skin that cat.”

Smith said that the application was pulled because “other opportunities” may be coming available.

“There are farmers that definitely want to be in Sebastopol,” Smith said.

[treasure]

Oh, I am so disappointed! I have really missed walking to the Farmer's Market over the past year, and so sorry that by the time I'm out and about again, it won't be within easy walking distance for me.

Even if I owned a car, I wouldn't want to drive it to the Farmers Market. For me, "Farmer's Market" and "Walking" belong together.

I was grateful for the proposed 2d Farmer's Market, as the Vets Building is much closer to where I live than Morris Street is. I could actually envision walking to the Vets Building in the near future.

But not all the way to Morris Street, and the market at the French Garden is even more inaccessible than the Morris Street location.

I hope that the people who proposed a 2d Farmer's Market at the Vets Building will submit another application, perhaps for Saturday.

Tara

I'm happy to report that

the application for the 2nd Farmer's Market on Sunday's has been withdrawn!

More information about that will be forthcoming...

[oliviathunderkitty]

I don't believe the market will ever be on Morris St. Currently, it is in the town plaza, just three short blocks from the Vets building. When it moves in 2013, my understanding is that the weekly market will be a very short walk from where the market is now.

I hope this information helps, as the Sebastopol market is such a wonderful place.

Oh, I am so disappointed! I have really missed walking to the Farmer's Market over the past year, and so sorry that by the time I'm out and about again, it won't be within easy walking distance for me.

Even if I owned a car, I wouldn't want to drive it to the Farmers Market. For me, "Farmer's Market" and "Walking" belong together.

I was grateful for the proposed 2d Farmer's Market, as the Vets Building is much closer to where I live than Morris Street is. I could actually envision walking to the Vets Building in the near future.

But not all the way to Morris Street, and the market at the French Garden is even more inaccessible than the Morris Street location.

I hope that the people who proposed a 2d Farmer's Market at the Vets Building will submit another application, perhaps for Saturday.

Tara

[oliviathunderkitty]

Your post, Treasure, sparked a bit of inspiration. Why doesn't someone start a bicycle-powered rickshaw service to take people near downtown to and from the farmers market? Bike-powered rickshaws are popular in Seattle and they're really cool and efficient. I can imagine something like this working well here. Maybe it could even be underwritten by the market, by the city or some other organization--a bike business?--so that people who live near town but can't walk to the market can get there and home comfortably.

Anyone want to take on this project?

[Barry]

Great idea, Michele Anna! I'd be happy to offer free promotion for the service for the first month!

Your post, Treasure, sparked a bit of inspiration. Why doesn't someone start a bicycle-powered rickshaw service to take people near downtown to and from the farmers market? Bike-powered rickshaws are popular in Seattle and they're really cool and efficient. I can imagine something like this working well here. Maybe it could even be underwritten by the market, by the city or some other organization--a bike business?--so that people who live near town but can't walk to the market can get there and home comfortably.

Anyone want to take on this project?