PARKing Day dream: Imagine … a White Center Farmers’ Market
Dreaming of a future White Center Farmers’ Market is part of what the PARKing Day “park” is all about. Till 3 pm, you can see the “park” set up by White Center Community Development Association and Technology Access Foundation — with that banner, some greenery, fresh produce, and of course, technology — in the parking spaces by Full Tilt Ice Cream on 16th SW, west side of the street, a short ways south of Roxbury. Staffing the “park” when we stopped by a short time ago — WCCDA’s Sopha Danh and TAF’s Richard Brown:
TAF is also promoting its free TechStart classes – all listed on this handy white board at today’s “park”:
PARKing Day is happening nationwide – with people setting up temporary “parks” like this one to remind us that urban greenspace is vital to healthy, happy city living (among other things!).
Tags: PARKing Day, TAF, wccda
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September 19th, 2008 at 12:39 pm
a farmers market so nearby would be awesome!!!
Wouldn’t it be too expensive for many of the families of white center?
September 19th, 2008 at 12:41 pm
I go to the WS farmers’ market and there are many things that are actually cheaper than the supermarket. Depends on the vendor. They’re not all organic, for example, and that can affect the price. Although I’ve seen comparable organic pricing too!
September 19th, 2008 at 1:37 pm
This is great!! Wish I wasn’t at work and could go. Now if we could just get rid of Brewsky’s and the Locker Room and make the space into a full time park and farmers market space… :)
September 19th, 2008 at 3:42 pm
I’ve found Farmer’s Market prices are generally less than the supermarkets because they are cutting out the middle man. I would so love to see a market start in WC.
I, too, wish that I wasn’t at work so that I could support these efforts. Kudos to WCCDA for continuing the work to improve our community.
September 19th, 2008 at 7:05 pm
There used to be a White Center Farmers Market a few years ago – have the issues with cutting into the profits of the Asian grocers been ironed out?
http://community.seattletimes.nwsource.com/archive/?date=20050321
September 19th, 2008 at 8:13 pm
With the housing prices in and around White Center as they are ($250,000 and up+) isn’t it a little ‘old school’ to think that White Center is just for the ‘poor’ ?
White Center is/has changed my friends. It is not poverty stricken as it once was-hence the need for a nice sandwich shop :)
September 19th, 2008 at 10:14 pm
We lost the White Center Farmers’ Market because some of the White Center businesses didn’t like it, feeling it was cutting into their profits from either the Farmers’ Market shoppers taking up parking spaces to the Farmers’ Market vendors selling some of the same things as were in the stores in White Center.
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/foodwine/2002214388_farmer21m.html
The White Center Community Development Association (WCCDA) ran the Farmers’ Market and decided to close it down to make the White Center business owners, who were opposed to it, happy.
I thought there could be other solutions, such as recruiting more vendors who sold things that weren’t sold in the small markets in White Center. For example, Wade Bennett of Rockridge Farms sells, among other things, incredible heirloom tomatoes, fresh apple cider, and French pumpkins. He used to sell at the White Center Farmers’ Market, but now one has to go to the West Seattle Farmers’ Market to buy his wonderful produce. Of course, a few of the things he sold could also be purchased in the local White Center stores, but most were not.
The WCCDA could have also chosen to move the market to another location so it wasn’t right in downtown White Center, literally right next to one of the local businesses selling produce.
When the WCCDA closed down the White Center Farmers’ Market, it may have helped the small businesses in White Center that sell fruits and vegetables, but it resulted in the residents losing something that benefitted the community as a whole.
September 20th, 2008 at 2:55 pm
I used to be one of the ‘guest chefs’ for the farmers market a few years back, and it was really great! There certainly were many things for sale that are not available at the local markets that were nearby. The sense of community and meeting my neighbors was wonderful. I would love to help bring it back. Perhaps it could be somewhere a bit East, away from the main downtown, like at White Center Heights Elementary, or out front on 8th SW?
September 22nd, 2008 at 10:06 am
Surely there is compromise (with local businesses) that would be a win-win situation. Whether that is to choose a location that is less invasive to their stores or to incorporate their businesses in some way to the market effort.