Saturday, October 11th, 2008

Markets may open locally

A new farmers’ market is on its way to Brentwood while plans are in the works to bring a market back to Westwood Village, two months after the departure of the Westwood Village Farmers’ Market.

The development of the Westwood Farmers’ Market was announced in a press release Wednesday, stating plans to open the new market at the Vets’ Garden on the Veterans Administration grounds in Brentwood. Also, plans are being formulated to reestablish a Village farmers’ market on Broxton Avenue. The two markets are unrelated.

The market, which would technically be in Brentwood, is scheduled to open sometime this June or July and would operate each Thursday from 1 to 7 p.m., according to the statement.

The announcement comes about two months after the closure of the Westwood Village Farmers’ Market, which operated for 12 years at the corner of Westwood Boulevard and Weyburn Avenue.

The Los Angeles Fire Department determined the Village market to be unsafe during the continuing construction of Palazzo Westwood, a mixed-use complex with apartments and retail spaces developed by Casden Properties.

Merle Fishman, the director of the Vets’ Garden, said final negotiations regarding the market will be made in a meeting today, but could not comment further on the details of the negotiations.

Similar to the former Village market, which was closed by Los Angeles Fire Department officials March 30 amid protest from supporters, the new market will host farmers, live music, and other vendors and activities.

Westwood Farmers’ Market representatives were unreachable for comment Thursday regarding more specific information concerning the market.

Though this new market will provide a new option for locals from both UCLA or surrounding communities, there are still efforts to develop a market within the Village.

Jessica Dabney, a former member of the Farmers’ Market Educational Foundation, which provided funding and oversight for the former market, said she is looking into working with the community to develop a new market within the Village, unrelated to the Vets’ Garden market.

So far not much progress has been made with regard to this project, she said, but a market in the Village is something she feels is important to Westwood.

“It provides a service and sort of is a community base for a lot of diverse groups in Westwood Village,” she said.

She said she has spoken with merchants in the Village, UCLA students and local property owners, and many seem enthusiastic about the idea.

An organization called Friends of the Westwood Farmers’ Market is also looking into the reestablishment of a Village-centered market.

Founder Yuting Wong, who works in the Health Services Research Center at UCLA, said an application to develop a new market on Broxton Avenue has been obtained, and the organization is currently looking to gain approval for the market from Broxton Avenue merchants and property owners.

She said 70 percent of Broxton Avenue merchants must support the street closure in order to establish the market on that street.

“So far, it’s looking okay,” she said.

At a meeting last Tuesday, 18 store owners and managers discussed the possibility of a Broxton market with Friends representatives, and 16 were positive about the proposal, Wong said.

She said they will be looking to collect signatures from businesses as soon as possible.

“I’m very confident,” she said.

The group is hoping to operate the market on Thursdays, similar to the previous market, but Wong said they are willing to negotiate the times with businesses.

Though competition might seem imminent with two markets operating on the same day, Wong said they would be far enough apart to make the foot traffic different.

“People love farmers’ markets, so there probably would be enough interest in both of them,” she said.

She said students would probably not go to the Vets’ Garden market if a Village market was also available.

Fourth-year anthropology student Megan Carney, director of the Student Gardening Program at UCLA, said she believed the new Vets’ Garden market is “very merited,” but what makes a farmers’ market successful is its integration into a community space.

Weyburn Avenue was already a place people went and was a familiar community space, she said, whereas it seems the Vets’ Garden is not frequented as much by community members or students.

She said she felt students might rather travel by bus to Venice to attend a market in a familiar or community area than attend a market in an unfamiliar space.

However, she recognized the difficulty of securing locations within urban areas – such as within the Village – which in turn makes it hard to develop markets in these community spaces.