Ottawa's Byward Market
 

Has the City gone too far in 'regulating' the Byward Market? According to Ron Corbett of the Ottawa Sun it has.

http://www.ottawasun.com/news/columnists/ron_corbett/2009/09/06/10773991.html

Is The Market as we know it doomed?

I find the market has improved this year. Specifically the vegetable vendors.

The cauliflower alone is worth the trip (how do they get it so perfect?). Only downside is wrestling with the crowds on Byward on a nice weekend, especially the clever folk who stop to socialize in the middle of the narrow, crowded sidewalk (usually beside a sandwich board :hell: )!! I wonder when the city will get smart and close Byward to traffic on Saturday's and Sundays in the summer to let the vendors and pedestrians have more space? In the meantime, if you are one of the guilty parties and have wondered who jabbed their knuckle into your back to get you to move, it was probably me (crude, but effective :tup: )!

If someone ever did that to me, they would be suprised when I turned around a gave them a quick and hard punch in the face. Might I suggest you try saying excuse me in lieu of assualting people and potentially being assulted yourself.

Agree that they should close some roads in the market. I know there was talk about it last summer, but that seemed to have passed quickly. Closing the roads perm. would allow the vendors to move in and allow the local businesses to have their store fronts back. Also those in the Byward Market building could have small patios.

Would improve the market big time imo.

You forgot to mention that both of them were pushing those double-wide baby strollers. At least that's my experience. :D

This is a fantastic idea. There's no reason to have the N/S roads there, except for access for vendors, I suppose. Either way, deliveries wouldn't be a ton tougher using York or George. It'd be so much better if it were more pedestrian oriented.

Yes, because fixing the Byward Market is critical, as it is a failure and needs to be fixed as soon as possible. Let's use Sparks St as our model, and close some streets to mimic it's success. :rolleyes:

Certainly you cannot seriously think the ByWard Market's success is due to the fact that these two streets are open to traffic or that the failure of Sparks is due to the fact that they closed the road.

[QUOTE=Zach6668;4446706]You forgot to mention that both of them were pushing those double-wide baby strollers. At least that's my experience. :D

QUOTE]

You must have been walking right behind me that day! I edited out a mention of the strollers because I didn't want to seem anti-child :sly: What's up with strollers nowadays - am I shrinking in my old age or have they gotten honking big? I saw a woman at Bridgehead the other day struggling to get through the doorway with one the size of a small mobile home. Since the kid doesn't give a
s--t what he's being wheeled around in I assume that they're designed to satisfy some obscure urge of the parent.

I think that closing the roads in the Byward Market would seriously harm it, and that opening Sparks St. to limited traffic would be beneficial to it's future.

It my opinion Sparks fails because it became a buisness district (does well during lunch Mon-Fri). The market flourishes because there are many condos and other housing nearby.

It's like NCC tried to build the Market on Sparks St, but it did not happen as it was already happening naturally in the ByWard Market area. Housing developers had to compete against huge businesses on Sparks for property but did not have to do that in the Market.

Personally, I think the failure of Sparks Street is due to the fact that in the 70s Wellington street was cut in half and then unnaturally spliced on to the Ottawa River Parkway, and then the LeBreton area was bulldozed. This upset the main pattern of commercial east-west traffic that used to naturally flow between Centretown and Hintonburg, and moved it farther south. The hole in the urban fabric at LeBreton essentially made western downtown into a dead end and has been stagnating since. The same can be said about the eastern end of Hintonburg.

I doubt banning traffic on some streets in the ByWard Market would harm it. The two streets one either side of the market building, especially. If and/or when transit is finally streamlined downtown and there is no longer much need for the Rideau Street bus mall, vehicular traffic should be concentrated there and there would be no real reason for George or York streets to be full through roads.

I agree with you about Byward Market. The idea of at least partly closing William and Byward between George and Clarence appeals to me. I'd also take a hard look at York between Sussex and William and Clarence from Sussex to Dalhousie. There would still have to be some vehicular access for residents and deliveries, and maybe a couple of gaps for parking garage access but overall the creation of a pedestrian zone would seem a terrific thing. I will admit I don't know what that might do to car traffic (Dalhousie is already brutal much of the time), but it doesn't seem to raise insurmountable difficulties. I am not sure why it would have any negative effect on business in the area.

Just saw this thread and thought I'd post a reply...

Closing traffic on ByWard and William Streets beside the Market Building seems appealing for tourists and area residents, but is not practical in so far as it would severely harm a large part of what makes the ByWard Market work. Consider the following:

• Market Vendors require access to load and unload their stands frequently throughout the day - there is no hidden backroom to store their product, it is either at their farm or warehouse, or in their truck. It is not feasible to do this loading or unloading anywhere other than behind the stands.
  
• In order for the Market to remain successful, the fruit & vegetable / plant stands need to be viable. The art & craft stands are unfortunately more tourist oriented (although with the new by-law requirements this will hopefully change) and rely on the attraction of the Market being a "working local farmer's market" for their appeal. The fact of the matter is that many of the regular customers have been shopping the Market for MANY years (often decades) and are rather elderly folk who do not live within walking distance (alot of customers are from Vanier). These people know which vendors they want to shop at, and are not willing to circle the neighbourhood looking for parking. For this in-out shopping that makes the Market viable, the 15 minute parking zones behind market stands on ByWard Street are essential.
  
• Once again in reference to the regular paying customers: when buying bedded plants, customers expect the convenience offered by leaving the prepaid plants with the vendor, and then bringing their car around to load them.
  
• In addition to the vendor stands, the businesses in the Market Building and along ByWard and William Street require frequent access.
  
• Cyclists have a hard enough time in the area without having these streets turned into officially pedestrian spaces.

That being said, the City is planning on closing the north corner of William Street at York Street, and rerouting the traffic from the parking garage north to Clarence Street. This will create a newly landscaped area for special events, performances and new vendors, and limit some of the traffic in the core of the Market.

That's a good idea. I've used that portion of the street many times coming out of the parking garage and it's always been a problem. There's already a significant amount of pedestrian space there. Adding some more could allow them to do some special things that they can't right now.

Closing a street to regular traffic does not mean supply trucks cannot enter. Practically all European open-air markets are in pedestrian only zones and function just fine. Also, the goal should not be necessarily making the streets pedestrian-only, but making them pedestrian-priority.

What is ridiculous in the ByWard Market is that we seem to value surface parking more than pedestrian space. The area dedicated to car parking far outweighs the pedestrian space. Trying to find a decent place to sit outside after you've bought a Beavertail or ice cream can be difficult.

What the streets around the Market building need to become is more like a shared space or a"woonerf", where by taking away the divisions between road and sidewalk allow the use of the street to become more flexible depending on season or time of day.

I pretty much agree with everything you've said here. In Ottawa we're good at putting plazas and benches where people aren't. In the market, you need to know where the courtyards are to sit down and eat your ice cream. As long as Ottawans are car centric, the city will have to maintain a delicate balance between parking and pedestrians in the market, but it should definitely start to shift towards pedestrians, and closing those two streets on weekends is a good start.

As much as I like the term woonerf, which is a new one to me, it sounds like they depend on curves as traffic calming measures. A great idea, but difficult to implement in the very grid oriented market. I particularly like the following quote in your reference:

"The use of curves eliminates lengthy sightlines for drivers. "Don't let [the driver] search for the end of his torment," a Dutch woonerf expert suggests only half-jokingly."

There is nothing that says the city cannot close a street to traffic and still allow access to delivery vehicles. They can also further limit access to these delivery vehicles to off peak hours.

I live in Vanier and use the market on a regular basis. I have never once been able to park on either street even with the 15 min zones.

Making these streets more pedestrian friendly does not mean you need to remove cyclists. In fact it would make the route more bicycle friendly which it currently is not. For that matter, it is not very car friendly atm either.

This not to mention, those who operate businesses on these streets have little space for patios in the summer or for proper store fronts and signage that can be seen.

I loathe sitting in Must Tapas looking at the white van that is parked 6-8 feet away every day (it is one of the vendors vehicles). I would be upset as an owner who pays proper property tax being shut out of view by vendors who don't.

Use some big-ass street art to create an obstacle course with the required curves?

report by Project for Public Spaces
http://ottawa.ca/sites/ottawa.ca/files/attachments/ottpage/byward_market_en.pdf

Citizen summary
http://www.ottawacitizen.com/news/ottawa...arking+advises+report/8228399/story.html

sometimes I wonder how much of the traffic in the market is people circling around looking for a free spot until they give up and go into a garage

I live 2 blocks from the market. I can assure you, the bulk of weekend and weeknight traffic on my street is looking for free street parking. I've seen fights break out over a free street parking site.

sorry about that.. i try not to get so worked up, but if i'm waiting with my signal on and some jerk-off rounds the corner and snags it, i get a little angry.

I use too do that, now I just park in the city's parkade. It's not that expensive and you get a nice view from the top.

I think we need a few more fresh food locations around the core of the actual Market and possibly make it a bit more pedestrian friendly (William Plazas are a good start), but not fully pedestrian until a proper city wide transit system is built(Bank-Rideau-Montreal subway line, complete ORT reaching all the suburbs and direct airport to downtown service as well as a proper rapid transit connection to Gatineau).

Free parking is neither a solution nor needed. We already have the hotels, the condos and the Rideau Centre transit hub and to a lesser point the CBD to keep feeding the market. Free parking would only increase the vehicular chaos. We would probably even see cheap bstds conducting business in the CBD first trying to find a free spot in the Market.

I'm contemplating setting up a live web cam with a view down my street. When I'm sitting out on my deck I get a real chuckle watching people trying to parallel park Also the others who continuously drive up and down waiting for that one elusive spot. A few hundred feet further down the road, there's a city parking lot that would cost less the gas being wasted.

True story. Sitting out on a Sunday afternoon, some bloke parks half way in front of tenant parking. He looks up, sees me and then "instructs" me to tell bylaw he'd be right back. Sure enough, bylaw came by shortly and placed a ticket. The guy returns and gets mad at me!!

The people looking for free parking are most usually suburbanites who come downtown once or twice a year. They are unused to paying for parking and remember the market of 20 years ago when free parking was more plentiful.
Many of my trips to the market are on foot or by bicycle, but if I have to drive I dive straight into the first parking lot. Life is too short to spend circling for parking.

There's another report on the recent Public Spaces study in the CBC today, with a focus on the decline in produce vendors.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/ottawa/sto...-city-planning-public-space-farmers.html

It's hard to believe that with the rise of farmer's markets, 100 mile diets and other locavores that there isn't more interest in this. Part of the solution it would seem would be to talk to the right people, the people behind farmer's markets elsewhere in the city. Other than that, you simply have to reserve space for them and reconcile yourself to the fact that you might not get as much revenue from the organic cheese dude as you do from the t-shirt vendor.

It's worth asking too, whether we want to preserve the tradition. I think the market would survive without its veg&fruit vendors, but it would lose a connection with its past. There would be no market in the market. The street vendors contribute to the pedestrian nature of the area.
I think you can revive the food vendors and also encourage other stall based vendors. The local produce season is short, so bring in art and quality craft fairs in the slow seasons.

I wouldn't be surprised if 90% of the traffic in the market arrived by foot, bicycle, or transit. With that said, motorists are... well... not shy about unloading their furor on the businesses and vendors when they don't get the easy and free spot they want. They made it quite plain and regularly at that. I know that leaves an impression on business owners and I can see why there exists some tension over the parking issue.

I usually circle once looking for street parking and then go to the city parking garage on Clarence.

As for the vendors, I've always found the street vendors too pricey down there. I'm used to farmer's markets being cheaper than grocery stores. When I go to the market, it's usually to eat at a restaurant, people watch, visit my brother or shop at some of the specialty shops down there.

I'd be very surprised if even 50% of the people walking around the market arrived by any method that wasn't a car!

Take a walk down Dalhousie around 2 or 3pm on a pleasant Saturday/Sunday afternoon. The traffic coming from Quebec is backed up north to Bolton! Every street is packed with parking, some of it illegal (gasp!)

From David Reevely's blog. Seems merchants want the opposite of what's being proposed on this forum.

http://blogs.ottawacitizen.com/2013/04/11/the-problem-of-cars-in-the-byward-market/

My wish for the ByWard Market is that they build more underground parking to replace on-street parking. If the parking garages are regulated to have the same rate as on-street meters, and maybe a cheaper flat rate after hours, people wouldn't bother driving around looking for spots. If they dug up York Street and put 3 or 4 levels of parking underneath I bet it could equal all the street parking currently available. I would also love to see the current garage building demolished and replaced with an open air market plaza (or a second market building) with 5 or 6 levels of underground parking. The way things are, we are not giving the Market room to grow, we are just expecting it to get more crowded, which can also potentially turn off some people.

Plan afoot to breathe new nightlife into ByWard Market

By Michael Woods, OTTAWA CITIZEN February 20, 2014 8:43 PM

OTTAWA — There’s a plan in the works to launch a weekly “night market” in the ByWard Market this summer in a bid to attract an evening shopping crowd and liven up one of Ottawa’s most-visited areas.

Rideau-Vanier Coun. Mathieu Fleury pitched the idea at a committee meeting on Thursday. It’s a pilot project he hopes would attract a larger crowd to the market, a popular tourist attraction with a long history as a destination for local produce.

“How can we make it friendly for tourists and, at the same time, a go-to spot for locals? That’s the kind of balance we’re trying to achieve, and with the night market we’re testing it,” he said. “Hopefully, it works.”

It’s part of a broader push by the city to promote the ByWard Market and local food this summer. The city’s Markets Management group, which manages the ByWard and Parkdale markets, has a list of more than a dozen initiatives in an action plan for the coming summer.

Fleury said people with weekend community markets in their neighbourhoods currently have no reason to come to the market, because they can get their produce closer to home. But there are no other night markets in the city, so this could be an unfilled niche.

“The idea is really to bring products that are not available at that time elsewhere in the city, so that it gives people a reason to come down to the market and rediscover the space,” Fleury said.

Fleury said the night market would be open one day a week; perhaps Thursdays until about 9 p.m. Some market analysis is needed.

Other initiatives planned include expanding the number of stands for vendors and opening a “Savour Ottawa Farm Stand,” where local farmers would sell products not typically sold at the market. A similar initiative was successful at the Parkdale Market last summer.

The city manages the ByWard and Parkdale markets through a bylaw and licensing department, because its main function is to license vendors. That means bylaw amendments are required for these new ideas. The proposed amendments passed committee on Thursday and will come before city council next week.

It needs to happen now, Fleury said, because the seasonal contracts with the farmers who sell in the market are signed in early March.

While most other markets are weekend-only events, the seven days a week the market operates can be tough on local farmers, he said. Over the years, ByWard lost vendors who didn’t have the time or resources to be there each and every day. They need an incentive to come back, Fleury said.

“How do we bring these people back to the market, or into the market for the first time? These are steps to get us there.”

Jasna Jennings, executive director of the ByWard Market Business Improvement Area, also noted there’s a growing population of residents in the area — especially young professionals who could be well-served by later market hours.

She said local businesses are open to the night market idea and are eager to discuss it in more detail.

Last year, the stores along ByWard ran a small pilot project on their own, staying open late on Thursdays. But it wasn’t as successful as hoped. A well-promoted night market could change that.

“The timing wasn’t great. They started it midsummer, so it’s very hard to get the word out,” she said. “I think we’re bound to see better results this time around.”

Testing such initiatives is all part of looking ahead to 2017, Canada’s sesquicentennial celebrations, when the market will be vying for crowds with a fully up-and-running Lansdowne Park.

[email protected]/michaelrwoods
© Copyright (c) The Ottawa Citizen

http://www.ottawacitizen.com/news/ottawa...fe+into+ByWard+Market/9532694/story.html

*

ByWard ‘night market’ to open this summer

By Matthew Pearson, OTTAWA CITIZEN February 26, 2014 4:15 PM

OTTAWA — The ByWard Market will launch a special “night market” this summer in a bid to attract an evening shopping crowd and liven up one of Ottawa’s most-visited areas.

The pilot project, pitched by Rideau-Vanier Coun. Mathieu Fleury, would see a night market open one day a week; perhaps Thursdays until 9 p.m. It was approved by city council on Wednesday.

The night market idea is part of a broader push by the city to promote the ByWard Market and local food this summer. The city’s Markets Management group, which manages the ByWard and Parkdale markets, has a list of more than a dozen initiatives in an action plan for the coming summer.

Other initiatives include expanding the number of stands for vendors and opening a “Savour Ottawa Farm Stand,” where local farmers would sell products not typically sold at the market. A similar initiative was successful at the Parkdale Market last summer.

© Copyright (c) The Ottawa Citizen

http://www.ottawacitizen.com/news/ByWard+night+market+open+this+summer/9554199/story.html

It's ridiculous that this has to be approved by council in the first place. If the marketeers want to open till 9:00, let them.

One night a week? Perhaps Thursdays?

And open all the way to the crack of 9 p.m.?

I don't know...this might be too much, too soon for the good people of Ottawa. And what's the NCC's view on this? Have we consulted 'all Canadians' on this matter, because they might have their own concerns.

And what about the children??!!!

The sun will have set by 9 p.m. We obviously need to establish an artificial sun to shine at night, so people won't die of shade.

I'm wondering what would happen if all the off-campus students from Sandy Hill were to show up?

At the risk of being 'too soon', I'd suggest the scene might look like something from Kyiv's Independence Square, only with louder music and booze.

OH MY GOD I cant bear the thought of young people shopping and maybe drinking as late a 9 PM.

How does the Rideau Centre handle the maddening drunken student crowd? They're open til 9 PM during the week. It must be a literal gong show. OMG.

If this is happening in June or July, it will still be bright out when the "night market" closes. What's wrong with this city?

"Night Market" is probably not the right name. But stalls open later than 5 or 6 is important, as many people are working or whatever later than that.

So it's simply later hours.

In other cities, 'night market' refers to a large scale shopping event that's much more destination-y than a simple market--people will browse around, eat a bunch of stuff, walk around marvelling at things, etc. instead of just simply buying their crap and going. It's more like a festival than a market. AND THEY HAPPEN AT NIGHT. 11pm, midnight, into the small hours.

A bunch of market stalls simply staying open until 9pm is NOT a 'night market'.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Night_market

The ByWard Market may be headed for extinction, farmers warn

Bruce Deachman, Ottawa Citizen
Published on: September 29, 2014, Last Updated: October 1, 2014 4:47 PM EDT

The ByWard Market, among the largest and longest-running farmers’ markets in Canada, is on the decline, and some fear it is headed for extinction.

Competing neighbourhood markets, scarce and expensive parking, construction and over-regulation, they believe, are conspiring to empty its sidewalks of produce growers and vendors.

It is a rare day when the outdoor stalls reserved for farm products, plants and flowers are much more than half filled, while otherwise unused stands are given over to craft sellers or automobiles.

In the last four years, the number of agri-food retailers in the Market’s outdoor stalls dropped by 22 per cent, from 86 to 67.

The trend has enormous implications for Ottawa. About 90 per cent of the 10 million tourists who visit the capital each year shop in the ByWard Market, and the farmers’ stalls are a large part of the area’s charm.

The farmers market, established in 1826, is also a rich part of Ottawa tradition and culture. The ByWard Market is a rare combination of fresh produce stands, stores, restaurants and nightlife that is popular with everyone, notes Ottawa architect and urban designer Barry Padolsky, who calls it “the National Capital’s universally loved meeting place.”
“It’s remarkable for its urbanity, human scale, history and gritty sensuality. You can’t find a place like this on Facebook. We need to conserve it forever and enhance it.”

Farmers say business is steadily declining. Justin Cleroux laments the loss of customers as he arranges produce in his Market stall. Only 20, he comes from a long family line of ByWard Market merchants. His parents used to run a pair of stands while his grandfather, who was actually born in one of the stalls, operated three.

“Now, most of the time, one is too much,” he says. “We lose 50 per cent of our customers from one year to the next, and that’s been steady for the eight years I’ve been here.” He motions to the row of white tented stalls along ByWard Market Street. “This will be gone in two years,” he says. “Three at the most.”

Many farmers and vendors — “vendors” being the term used to denote re-sellers of produce, as opposed to growers — share Cleroux’s concern, if not quite his dire prediction.

From his father’s maple syrup stand at the corner of ByWard Market and George streets, Ross Valenta has noticed a “massive” decline in passersby in the past four years.

“It used to be an adventure just to get from one end of the market to the other, but not anymore.”


THE PARKING PROBLEM

The scarcity of parking in the ByWard Market, or at least the perception of it, has always been a major hurdle to attracting shoppers to the area. “There’s no parking and when there is, the meter maids get you right away,” Valenta says. “And it’s expensive. Little things like that. Also, a lot of people don’t want to deal with the panhandlers here. They’re out here like flies and they’re everywhere. You can shoo them away that they’ll just be back in another hour.”

Chantal Brazeau, who works at Vars farmer Hérve Lacroix’s stall, says the city needs to provide more parking or be more lenient in its enforcement. “They say they want to bring people in, but boy, oh boy, the city’s making a lot of money on the parking tickets. They’re like hawks.”

She agrees that the ByWard Market has not long to live. “I’d say between five and 10 years,” she says. “There’s been a lot of decline, for sure, and in 10 years there will just be people selling clothes and jewelry from Montreal. Lots of crafts.”

Retired Gatineau school principal Jacques Pelletier, who has been going to the Market since his grandfather brought him as a youngster, wonders why Ottawa can’t adopt a system similar to the one used at Montreal’s Jean-Talon Market, where underground parking costs just 50 cents for the first half hour, with more expensive rates kicking in after that.

“Why couldn’t they do that here?” he asks, pointing to the swath of meters along York Street between Sussex and ByWard. “Close that off and make it the farmers’ market parking.”

Seven or eight years ago, Pelletier and his wife started volunteering at a produce stand on Saturdays in September and October, mostly for a lark. For the past three years, though, Pelletier, 62, has worked three days a week at Hawkesbury farmer Francois Legault’s produce stall at the north end of the market building. He is convinced the Market is on extremely precarious footing.

“The Market is dying. There are a lot of other markets now. People go to the Main Street Market on the weekends. They go to Parkdale. They don’t come into Centretown.


THE COMPETITION

Most agree that the ByWard Market has been hurt by the growth and popularity of neighbourhood farmers markets elsewhere in the city, a trend that really took hold with the opening of the Ottawa Farmers Market at Lansdowne Park in 2006. The Sunday-only market began with just 19 farmers, but now boasts more that 100 producers.

Single-day markets favour smaller producers who may lack the resources to maintain a daily stand, and rents at these markets are often lower than those at the ByWard and Parkdale markets, the operations of which are overseen by the City. Neighbourhood markets also typically offer free parking.

Following the success of the Ottawa Farmers Market, other similar markets have opened in neighbourhoods across the city, further dividing the economic pie.

“Everyone that opens up is just taking a little bit away,” says Isaac Farbiasz, owner of ByWard Fruit Market, a longtime Market store.

“When we took over here 15 years ago, you could not walk down the sidewalk on a Friday, Saturday or Sunday, from morning to night. It was pretty much impossible; it was packed. But then there were only two markets — ByWard and Parkdale. Now there are about 20, and more pop up all the time.”

For indoor produce merchants like Farbiasz, most of the sales come in the off-summer months. And the loss of income from weekend suburban customers has largely been offset by an increase in the number of shoppers who live nearby, as highrise condominiums have sprung up around the Market. Still, he suffered sales declines in June and July this year, a first in his decade-and-a-half in the Market, notwithstanding periods of street construction.

Farbiasz recognizes that the decline of farmers and produce vendors in the Market might not be beneficial to his business, either. “When you lose competition, you lose a draw, and that’s too bad.”

He’s trying to remain optimistic, but says he wouldn’t be surprised if the farmers market at the ByWard Market ended its nearly 200-year run sometime in the next five to 10 years.

“If you’re producing, it’s not too bad,” he notes. “But if you’re buying and selling, it’s not that easy, and the number of people selling is going down yearly. And a lot of these people are getting to the age where they’re going to retire, and who’s going to take over? It doesn’t pay.

“It’s like all things. (The ByWard Market) has to be revitalized. But it’s also possible that it’s the end.”

Brazeau says that if the city is serious about helping the farmers in the ByWard Market, it should consider allowing just the producers to sell fruits and vegetables when they’re in season, leaving the re-sellers to offer only out-of-season produce and items not grown in the area, such as peaches.

Otherwise, she says, there’s simply not the incentive for farmers to set up stalls. “There’s no one who wants to run these stands after the owners retire. The work is hard and the hours are long, and business has gone down because there are not as many buyers as before because of all the different markets.”

At International Cheese & Deli, meanwhile, 35-year owner Eddy Saikaly has been watching the Market change for decades. Like Farbiasz, he now counts on the nearby condos for most of his business — 80 per cent, he says — but doesn’t believe the death knell for the farmers’ market is imminent.

“I don’t think the stalls will disappear. Some people leave, some other people will come. But there are too many restrictions, too many laws. ‘You cannot do this, you cannot do that.’ The city has to be more flexible with everybody.”

That’s easier said than done. The city’s requirement that all stand-owners display signs indicating whether they are producers or re-sellers, for example, has met with varying responses. Growers have welcomed the distinction, as have shoppers who want to buy locally grown produce, while re-sellers might prefer that information remain less clear. Farbiasz, for one, believes the signage might ultimately attract more farmers to the Market and help reinvigorate the area.

If it were just a matter people buying apples elsewhere, then market forces would take care of the matter. But the ByWard Market is peculiarly situated as Ottawa’s second-most popular attraction, after the Parliament Buildings, and the farmers’ market there is vital to the city’s tourism industry.

“Tourists don’t often buy from us,” admits Pelletier, whose gourds, plants and pumpkins make awkward carry-on luggage, “but if I got a dime for every picture that was taken of this stand, I’d be rich.”

But the market, of course, is also beloved by people who live in Ottawa. Leonie Maciag, an Ottawa native now living and working in China, comes to the Market whenever she’s back in town. “I would hate to see it disappear. It’s part of my childhood, part of my life. And I think having it here, not just for me but for the tourists, it really represents Ottawa.

“I love the atmosphere, people are friendly. It kind of brings a sense of community to the area, and I think that’s really important.”
Stephanie Henderson, a university student living in Centretown, has been shopping regularly in the Market since she moved to Ottawa from Osgoode seven years ago. “What I like about shopping in the market is that everything tastes better,” she says. “There’s no way you can compare a cherry tomato that you buy here with something that you buy at the grocery store; it’s sweeter, it’s more flavourful and honestly, at two baskets for five dollars, it’s cheaper than you can buy at the grocery store, and they’re better.”

Marc Aubin, past president of the Lowertown Community Association and current candidate for Ottawa city council, says that numerous issues are to blame, including years of road construction in the area, the cost of renting stalls, the continued encroachment in the Market by restaurants and bars — the community association, he says, estimates that such establishments account for 20,000 seats in the Market — and what he sees as a lack of vision at City Hall about what locals and tourists want from the ByWard Market.

“A lot of people feel that the quality of everything in the market has diminished. Like these other stalls selling garments and trinkets. I was walking by them this summer and was appalled. I thought, ‘Here we are in the national capital of Canada — and one of the distinguishing features of the ByWard Market should be that it says Canada — and they’re selling these trinkets that I could buy in the Caribbean.’

“There’s nothing that says Canada when you look at that stuff, or really anything that I find attractive to buy as a local or as a tourist. One of the accusations is that the ByWard Market is turning into a tourist trap, but now they’re selling stuff that I don’t even think tourists want. So you start to question the whole package together.”

City councillor Mathieu Fleury, whose Rideau-Vanier ward includes the ByWard Market, says the City of Ottawa has implemented some new initiatives with the hope of reversing the downward trend, with an eye to having changes in place by 2017, in time for Canada’s 150th anniversary. Among those are Thursday-night shopping, an outdoor demonstration kitchen, and a stall, manned by Savour Ottawa, featuring produce not found at the other stalls, such as eggs, pies, honey, cider, sheep’s milk products, cranberries and cheeses, typically from organic producers too small to maintain stands of their own.

“The season will be over shortly,” says Fleury, “and then we’ll sit down with farmers, arts and crafts people and city staff, and see where this can go next year. We’d like to pilot more projects, and we’re always looking for ways to support our local farmers.”

Fleury said that he’d like to see the city hand over the running of the ByWard Market to a not-for-profit group that would, hopefully, be made up of farmers. “We want to enable them to thrive, and for us to do so, it’s not by working out of an old bylaw, because an old bylaw is very restrictive.”
Fleury adds that he hopes the renewal plan for the ByWard Market will include changes that have succeeded elsewhere, such as at Marché Jean-Talon.
“We want to redefine the public spaces. We want to put the parking underground on York Street and around ByWard. We have to support that sort of thing. It’s an amazing city asset, it’s historic, and for us it’s creating that balance of local, touristic and nightlife.

“If you have this offering of products across the city, then what’s your reason to come to the ByWard Market? What’s special? And that’s what we have to continue to evolve in our discussion.”

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http://ottawacitizen.com/news/local-news...ay-be-headed-for-extinction-farmers-warn

It's a good article, but I think the vendors need to work on their business model a bit. More parking is not going to bring back the suburbanites that came to the market 15 years ago. They can to go many markets with better parking (or farm boy).

I think the need to think about how to capitalize on what they have (tourists and condo owners). They might be able to attract condo owners with later hours (by the time people are returning from work most of the vendors have closed).

Tourists might be attracted with individual items (apples, a bag of cut vegetables, etc) or with cross-promotion with restaurants in the market (list the restaurants that shopped there that day, for example).

I especially think they should get rid of the permanent stalls, not only because they're ugly, but lack flexibility. I think they should either kick the fast food joints out of the market building and use the market for food (like Jean Talon or St Lawrence) or have the vendors set up temporary locations (the way most markets in Europe work).

I agree. I think using the market building like St. Lawrence Market would be ideal. They've really revitalized the surrounding area as well, and it's a place that not only brings in nearby locals, but residents in outlying neighbourhoods, and even tourists.

Personally, I wouldn't mind seeing them:
- close off a portion of the streets around the market building to traffic
- replace the parking garage north of the market building with a possible extension (or annex) to the market building.

What bugs me the most about the market is the number of cars, and how poorly they are handled. The cars aren't going away, and there are plenty of deliveries to be made, but forcing pedestrians to cross George street at two signals is ridiculous. All the pedestrians have already crossed by the time the light turns red, and then all the cars sit and wait. Stop signs and slow but moving traffic would be much more pleasant for pedestrians and drivers.

Hardly a timely article on the Citizen's part. The Byward Market, as a market, has been in decline for thirty years or more.

*

Interesting post on 613Style from November 2nd, 2014:

It's suggested that...

Well, it seems safe to say that it won't be a Neiman Marcus. I question how "luxury" it could be when Ottawa's money crowd tends to avoid the Market.

I wonder if the old Expedition is one of the spaces that could've been purchased. It's quite large inside!