The "farmers market" in the Old Town section of Temecula, Calif., got a new, five-year lease on life. The city council on a 4-0 vote gave the managers of the sprawling market, Gale and George Cunningham, the right to continue using city property for the weekly Saturday markets, ending a brouhaha that had simmered for months. Merchants in the neighborhood had complained that while it was billed as an outlet for local farm produce, the market had mutated into a sprawling, anything-goes street bazaar that was unfairly competing with them.
The city sought to address the concerns of local merchants by imposing limits on the market designed to turn it back into what it was meant to be, as the North County Times reported on Nov. 7. The farmers will be certified, and nonagricultural and nonfood vendors will be allowed to sell only handcrafted items, health care products, and other items related to the theme of the farmers market. That leaves the door open to all sorts of merchandise, but to make sure it doesn't get out of hand, the new deal with the city requires the Cunninghams to submit a quarterly list of vendors and a detailed list of the items they sell to the city for review and approval.
The market could have spared itself a lot of grief if it hadn't strayed so far from its mission in the first place, said Phil Strickland, writing in the Nov. 12 North County Times.
Let's acknowledge that it is no longer a farmers market in the best sense of the words. If it was, the contract probably would have been approved with nary a word, save for the yea votes. But, because of apparent lax management and a lack of city enforcement, the farmers market has violated the rule regarding the nature of what can be sold. [The new rules are] good, but of little consequence if the city doesn't keep a close, in-person eye on the vendors, at least for now.
Indeed, the Cunningham's attorney, Alicen Wong, already seems to be angling to widen a loophole for vendors peddling various and sundry stuff. Before the ink on the deal was even dry, she had asked the city to possibly broaden the list of approved merchants that could be categorized as "guest vendors" to sell their goods two Saturdays per year, according to the North County Times.
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