I love the urban mix at our farmers market here in Bloomingdale:
Old fashion live fiddle music,
Ultra chique menu items with fab ingredients
FREE Bicycle repairs and tune-up
No wonder Bloomingdale Farmers market is the 7th favorite small market in the entire USA!!!
And here is some follow-up statements from a Bloomingdale resident on the 100 block of R Street NW, who has made unfavorable remarks about the Bloomingdale Farmers' Market in the past:
I resent the hijacking of our very small block for the privileged few who pay exorbitant prices to vendors who do not even live in our neighborhood or DC.
The tacky and illegal pcv/metal pipe and other homemade sign posts that litter our beautiful tree boxes so as to promote this dreadful market (these must be removed immediately as they are against city ordinance).
The arrogance of a few (including our ANC rep and owner of Big Bear) who does what's best for (his)business and NOT the the citizens of the 100 block of R Street NW. I am hoping someone will run against him during the next election.
What is the source document for claiming 7th in the USA?
I suspect the original poster meant chic and NOT chique. For many of the old time neighbors, however, BFM fiddle music and menu items are from chic!+++++++++++++++++++++++++++
neighborhood name are required! Thanks for honoring the rules.And let’s review, once again, what the rules are for posting comments:
1) Identify yourself. A full name would be best, but at least include a first name.
2) Identify your neighborhood.
3) Totally anonymous posts will not be allowed and be deleted, regardless of the content of the comment.
BOTH name and
6 comments:
While I agree with anonymous that the market is a bit pricey(then again what in DC isn't these days) by purchasing at the BFM you are paying for convienence and for local products. If you have no concern for supporting your local farms, knowing where your food comes from, interacting with the people who produce your food and coming out and interacting with the community, then farmers markets aren't for you.
Sorry Joe last time I checked DC wasn't such an agricultural mecca so you're gonna have to rely on MD,VA,and PA or Common Good City Farm around the corner from your home to provide fresh local produce, but perhaps you believe this too is a dreadful an idea?
Instead maybe you should go to Giant or Safeway which are not DC companies and buy meats and produce from places which aren't in our area, our region, or even our country for a slighlty reduced cost for you, but a steeper cost to our planet.(Organic apples are 88c an apple at safeway compared to a dollar at our overpriced dreadful local market, where you can buy a wider array of delicous apples from Reid's Orchard and actually speak with Caitlyn whose family owns the orchard and who works at the Bear.)
Being that I am one of the newly gentrified population maybe I am misguided that I view food as the most important thing I can spend my money on, since I cannot afford a car so getting to supermarkets to shop is difficult, this market is anything but dreadful it is a godsend.
Since you also seem so concerned with local business I am concerned that you don't support something that helps the Big Bear, your closest local business, which if I am correct replaced a local liqour store where drug dealing was rampant, as was public drinking and urination in an alley in which my home shares with yours. That said ANC commisioner helps spear head things which help this neighborhood get things like tree boxes and all the little touches which are helping improve the quality of life in this neighborhood.
So I am sorry for anyone that finds this market to be such a scourge on our neighborhood. However it is benefical to the community on every level, with a small 7hrs of parking inconvience to pay. Thank you to all who make this happen.
Colin McDonough First St Bloomingdale.
As best as I can discern from the posting the complaint seems two-fold: the merchants aren't local and there are signs placed in tree boxes.
Well, as for the first complaint about the nativeness of the merchants I think there is a fundamental problem that is impossible to overcome where food is at issue. Namely, we live in an urban environment therefore we can never grow enough food within the boundaries of our locality to feed ourselves; yet we need food. And, the complainor's point actually is a good reason for having the market -- i.e. the farmers who sell their produce at the market are about as local as you can get in a dense urban city. We certainly aren't getting more local by purchasing our food at Safeway, Giant, etc. (although I have noticed Whole Foods is making an effort to supply some food from closer to home, so perhaps other stores will begin to follow suit).
The only possible means of satisfy the complainor's observation about the lack of local representation at the market is to expand the market. Neighborhood vendors who have wares to sell could set up booths to offer wares and services (chair massage, arts & crafts...etc.). By the way, I believe the bike repair service is a local organization.
As to the complainor's second observation about the signs I am not sure what he or she is referring to since I have never seen any of these "pcv[sic]/metal" signs. However, it seems it should be a simple issue for either Robin, Ted, or someone else to resolve by moving signage around a bit and ensuring any signage in treeboxes is properly relocated.
Just be carful of the free bike repairs. some dude tried to give my husbands bike a tune-up but left his brakes misaligned. And then said, "I guess I messed up your brakes" but offered no way of fixing them.
Are we still on this again?
Now that the WIC program includes farmers markets, I am seeing a new demographic (and an old one that I didn't expect to see clutching those WIC checks) at the market.
Also having lived here before the market I know that in the past the only other time neighbors got together was at the community meeting were we'd get all mad. At the market the mood is lighter and joyful. If the market was taken away, we wouldn't have that place and space to come and see the kids and the dogs and the neighbors.
And there was a failed market years ago at North Capitol and Florida. As the real estate agents say, "location, location, location." The BFM is best in close proximity to the Big Bear. So the idea to move it is another way of trying to kill it and so such ideas should be treated as hostile knowing past efforts. Mt Vernon Sq started their own Farmers Market, but it's location is logical but probably won't be sucessful. So the location matters.
Lastly, the market is a neighborhood amenity that I point to when people think we're nothing but drug dealers, crime, and winos.
Mari
5th Circle of Truxtun
In the Land of Shaw
To Anoymous who posted on Saturday, October 17th -- you have some good comments, but you didn't identify yourself. Sorry, but I have deleted your comment. If you want to post your comments again, specifying your name & neighborhood name, that would be great.
== Scott Roberts of Bloomingdale ==
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