Columbia City Farmers Market
Columbia City's Neighbor News |
Columbia City Farmers Market
The Columbia City market will be moving to Edmunds Street between 35th and 37th this coming Wednesday, July 7. We are hosting a party to celebrate our new location with great shoppin' and strollin' music, face painting, balloon animals, kids crafts events, free gifts to the first 300 shoppers and a special guest appearance from Deputy Mayor Darryl Smith.
The market opens at 3:00 when Deputy Smith rings the market bell!! The Columbia City Farmers Market is open every Wednesday through October 20th. Hours are 3 – 7 pm.
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page revision: 3, last edited: 07 Jul 2010 12:44
I think the new layout is excellent. It turns Edmunds into a great outdoor room — it's just that the furniture has been all rearranged. It took me awhile to find all my regular vendors, but that was kinda fun too.
One nearby neighbor told me they had less car traffic by their place this way, so they loved it.
I really, really, really (really) appreciate that the market is still right next to Columbia Park. Thanks for all your work to make this move happen.
Did they move from the parking lot because the pay spots need to be free at that time? Did Diamond Parking ask them to move, or does this mean that the Plaza is about to go down and be redeveloped (fingers crossed)?
The way I understand it, here's what happened —
When the real estate arm of Holland America Lines bought Columbia Plaza, they kept the Farmers Market status quo and offered the space rent-free. Over the past few years, that's been a many-$thousands benefit to the market and the neighborhood.
HAL converted the parking lot to paid parking. I was surprised they got there, considering its location in a pedestrian zone, but it's grandfathered as an existing lot. In this case, it doesn't matter if the parking is directly associated with the Columbia Plaza building. And it's outside of the station area overlay, so it's not directly affected by this issue.
It seems like nobody's really using it for commuter parking. I see many more light rail riders who park on the street a couple blocks farther to the east. Apparently HAL thinks there's a better demand for monthly parking. Or maybe they simply recognize that demand is highest on market day…
HAL's development proposal has picked up again. A couple months ago Dana Behar told me they're moving forward. They've had, I dunno, almost twenty meetings with various committees of the Landmarks Preservation Board. I'm thinking Holland America Lines is largely self-financed, so I guess their decision to move forward is mostly about their sense of the market.
The Columbia Plaza property changed hands in the recent past, with plans to develop the site. Like many other projects, it's in a holding pattern. The market has known for some time that they had to find a new space and have been on the hunt to work something out. Looks like they did, and even though the project may be on hold for whoever knows how long, they might as well move into their new home!