Proposal to Re-Open Street Divides Eastern Market Vendors
The administration of Mayor Adrian Fenty closed a portion of 7th Street SE to accommodate vendors after a fire at Eastern Market in 2007. Indoors versus outdoors. It's a debate as old as Thoreau, Hawthorne, and Yglesias. And now it's creating a schism at Eastern Market. Some vendors inside the market are concerned that the closure of a section of 7th Street SE on weekends to accommodate outdoor vendors is hurting the business of the indoor vendors. Customers, they argue, have to park several blocks away, creating a disincentive to visit the market for their food shopping. So they've crafted a proposal to re-open the street on Saturdays, increasing the supply of nearby parking at the expense of perhaps a few dozen vendor stands on the street. Bill Glasgow, who runs Union Meats and serves as the indoor vendors' delegate to the Eastern Market Community Advisory Committee, says weekends account for 70 percent of vendors' sales, but that business drops off considerably on rainy days because people can't park close enough to the market.Ă‚ "The bottom line is, when is enough enough?" he says. "We'd like to at least have it open on Saturday so customers can pick up their meat without walking three or four blocks." Needless to say, the proposal has not gone over well among the outdoor vendors.