Why Some Markets Make Hay, and 17th Street Makes Do

The moral of this week's Style Weekly piece on local farmer's markets might be to keep the government out of the business of selling produce. The Dovi/Bass joint certainly doesn't paint a pretty picture of how the City of Richmond has managed  the venerable 17th Street Farmer's Market, but it does suggest that there may be a light at the end of the year-long tunnel. It's not the city administration waving the torch, but Karen Atkinson, the manager of the new South of the James Market and founder of a new market management organization:

South of the James has proven a huge success. Using a formula also employed on a smaller scale at Byrd House, the market doesn’t just sell groceries — it sells an experience. Jugglers and balloon artists entertain kids. A guitarist growls the blues. Among the 50 or so regular vendors there, jewelry and handicraft makers sell goods next to local farmers.

Atkinson, the market manager Graziano recruited, has big dreams. She’s also counting on 17th Street to step up to the plate.

She’s already thinking expansion and recently, she clinched a deal with the city’s Department of Parks and Recreation to start a regular market next year at Bryan Park to mimic South of the James. Atkinson has created her own management organization: The Market Umbrella aims to provide a unifying voice for as many markets as choose to participate. She has a marketing budget and plans to use her voice to promote the broader buy-local message.

Atkinson, along with Graziano, recently met with the Economic Development Department in a last-ditch effort to provide assistance with the vision for the place. But, she says, “I have heard nothing.”

In related news, Style posted an online update that one-time market manager, Kathy Emerson, is looking to return the 17th Street:

As the city continues to search for a new manager to take over the 17th Street Farmers’ Market, the entrepreneur who revitalized the Shockoe Bottom mainstay in the late 1990s is interested in her old job again.

Kathy Emerson, the market’s manager from 1998 to 2004, has been the talk of vendors and advocates of 17th Street for weeks. On Tuesday, she told Style that she has officially expressed interest in the job with the city, and would like to spearhead its revival.

Emerson, who turned the market into an event-driven experience with tomato and Brunswick stew festivals and other arts-centric events, says the recent organic foods movement and the opening of other local markets make 17th Street prime real estate for a full-scale renaissance.

Comments

[Mary Kroll]

Finally, an even-handed report from Style on 17th St that didn't take any cheap shots and focused on the real problem the vendors are facing - gross mismanagment and unrelenting apathy from the City.