Palafox Market South The Popular Outdoor Market Eyes Expansion

by Gillian Rabold

As we heAd into MArch, the officiAl countdown to spring begins Spring brings warm weekend brunches and Saturday morning trips to the Palafox Market. For more than 15 years, the Palafox Market has been a shining gem in our community for locals and visitors alike.

Today, the Palafox Market continues to thrive and has grown to include nearly 150 local vendors selling everything from fresh produce, live plants, flowers and baked goods to local meats, handmade soaps and candles, antiques, collectibles and more.

The market’s tremendous growth has recently prompted the need for more outdoor space in order to accommodate both the crowd and the extensive waiting list of local vendors wanting to participate in the weekly market.

In an agenda conference on February 6, newly elected Pensacola Mayor D.C. Reeves and other city officials kicked off efforts to officially expand the Palafox Market into neighboring

Plaza Ferdinand aiming to cultivate a stronger, thriving small business community in Pensacola.

Plaza Ferdinand, located off Palafox Street between East Government and Zaragoza streets, is a historical monument known for setting the scene of the 1821 transfer of Florida from Spain to the United States. Over the years, the plaza has served as a lovely, green space to relax and enjoy the sights and sounds of historic Pensacola. However, following a festival that left the plaza damaged in September 1987, the City Council passed a city ordinance restricting the use of the plaza with the purpose of preserving its beauty and rich history.

Reeves made the case to council members that it is possible to preserve the history and beauty of the park while also using it as an asset to make the city more economically and culturally vibrant.

“You’re walking between two different markets and you’re stopping in other places along the way,” Reeves said. “It can have a catalytic effect on our vibrancy downtown, as well as all the help to small businesses.”

On February 9, the Pensacola City Council unanimously approved the first official reading of an ordinance that would allow the Palafox Market to expand to Plaza Ferdinand, allowing for up to 80 additional small business owners to sell their items each Saturday at the downtown market.

Reincorporating the plaza into a more active location for community events would draw in more foot traffic and create an even larger small business community within its walls. If the Palafox Market extends into Plaza Ferdinand, the extension will mark a significant change to the multi decade-long dormant life of the plaza.

The market’s expansion would be able to accommodate up to 80 vendors, alleviating the heavy list of businesses waiting in anticipation to partake in the market’s hustle and bustle of serving the local community.

Mayor Reeves, an entrepreneur himself, describes the Palafox Market as a great “pilot program” for those just beginning to navigate the world of small business. When talking with people who are taking the first steps to becoming an entrepreneur, he likes to ask, “have you started at the Palafox Market?” Having been a business owner in Pensacola himself, he boasts the benefits of vending at the Palafox Market; it’s a place to test products, figure out what is working and determine what needs to be improved.

According to Downtown Improvement Board (DIB) Executive Director Walker Wilson and Mayor Reeves, there is a waiting list in excess of 60 vendors looking to participate in the Palafox Market. Expanding the market from its current location at Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Plaza to include a neighboring site at Plaza Ferdinand could increase the market’s revenue by about 80 percent.

“I think, at the end of the day, we also have 60 people that want to have small businesses. We say we want to help small businesses and help cultivate entrepreneurship, economic development, things like that. I think this presents a great opportunity for us,” Reeves explained.

With the first reading of the proposed ordinance changed approved, this change and the interlocal agreement with the DIB will move to a second reading at a later date, where it will then be voted on for final approval.

Be sure to stop by the Palafox Market hosted on Saturdays from 9 am to 2 pm in the Martin Luther King Jr. Plaza on North Palafox Street, between Chase and Gregory streets. For the latest updates on the Palafox Market’s potential expansion, visit cityofpensacola.com. For more on the Palafox Market, visit palafoxmarket.com or follow @PensacolaPalafoxMarket on Facebook and Instagram.

Dead to Me

Seasons 1-3 Streaming on Netflix

by Morgan Cole

Starring Christina Applegate and Linda Cardellini, this Netflix gem recently returned for its third and final season. Darkly comedic at times and heartbreaking at others, each episode leaves you wondering what this duo will get themselves into next. Show creator Liz Feldman captures one of the most authentic and relatable portrayals of friendship I’ve seen on TV in a long time—aside from being deeply rooted in murder and deception.

I’ll admit, the premise of the show didn’t sound very interesting to me at first, but I love Applegate, so I gave it a chance. From the very first scene, when shortfused Jen Harding (Applegate) tries to fend off her well intentioned, but quite annoying neighbor who stopped by to drop off a “sorry-for-your-loss” lasagna, it was clear that this was going to be my kind of show. It’s not until the two beautifully flawed protagonists Jen and Judy Hale (Cardellini) share their first interaction during a grief circle meeting for those mourning the loss of a loved one, that the show (ironically) comes to life.

The final season is full of laugh-out-loud moments and picks up right where the Season 2 finale left off. There are so many gasp-worthy plot twists, developments and revelations that drive this story to its finish line. Applegate and Cardellini bring the series to an emotional and wildly unpredictable close for this bingeable dark-comedy.

Severance

Season 1 Streaming on Apple TV+

by Nicole Willis

Imagine a world in which you can have the perfect work-life balance. You can go to work and accomplish all of your tasks, but not bring home a single memory from the workday. The catch is, all of your decisions are being dictated by someone you hardly know—yourself.

This is the confusing reality for the characters in Severance. Created by Dan Erickson and directed by Ben Stiller and Aoife McArdle, this psychological thriller details the dystopian world of four macrodata refinement employees that work for a company called Lumon. These employees have one strange thing in common; they have all agreed to undergo “severance,” a surgery that separates their work life and personal life. Severed employees feel as though they are stuck in a cyclical existence; when they leave Lumon for the day, they do not recall anything that occurs once they leave. Instead, they just recall getting on the work elevator and then coming right back up.

Throughout the course of each episode, Lumon’s severed employees battle the confusion of being strangers to themselves, while also enjoying the stressfree feeling of not remembering the workday. It should be noted that Severance is not the type of show to throw on in the background, but it is a binge worthy show that will keep you hooked if you watch carefully.

Wednesday

Season 1 Streaming on Netflix

by Darien Hardy

After a spell of expulsions for dropping vats of piranha into the pool during swim practice, Wednesday’s (Jenna Ortega) parents, the notorious Gomez (Luis Guzmán) and Morticia (Catherine Zeta-Jones) Addams, send her off to their alma mater, Nevermore Academy, which serves as the premier academy for all outcasts: vampires, sirens, gorgons and the like.

At her new school, Wednesday meets her new roommate, Enid (Emma Myers), an incandescent werewolf that represents the Glinda to Wednesday’s Elphaba. Enid shows Wednesday around the school Mean Girls-style, introducing each supernatural clique. Although Nevermore is supposed to be a haven away from the “Normies” in the small town of Jericho, Wednesday—at first to her own pleasure—finds herself feeling like an outcast among the “Outcasts.”

Soon after enrolling, a murder outbreak causes Wednesday to take on a Veronica Mars-outcastdetective role, complete with real-time narration, creating a larger rift between her and her classmates and teachers, as most are her suspects—all the while trying to control her newly gained psychic ability.

This adaptation of Charles Addams’s comic is part horror story, part murder mystery and primarily a coming-of-age tale with high school drama and hints of the macabre. It may not be for the die-hard Addams Family fans, but Wednesday may be for those who like something a little more casual and spooky.