Street Market Report - December 1, 2013

182 Sunday Markets at Pigeon Park!

Surprisingly sunny despite reports of rain! To me, anyway, this is clear proof that the gods of weather surely shine on our little market here in the DTES.

I did a little calculation earlier today, and figured out that this market, on December 1, 2013 is actually the 182nd consecutive market held at Pigeon Park on Sunday for the past 3 and half years. 182 markets is nothing to sniff at. It takes a lot of hard work and dedication at the hands of the volunteers and the coordinators.
Here is how I did the calculation:
1) The first Sunday market at Pigeon Park was held on June 13, 2010
2) 29 market days were held in 2010, 52 in 2011, 53 in 2012
3) December 1 is the 48th market held on Sunday in 2013
This gives a total of 182 Sundays where there was a market held at Pigeon Park by the DNC or the DTES Street Market Society.

Our 200th market day will take place on April 6th (close to my birthday), and I am proposing a large celebration for this event. We should invite the mayor, councilors  and dignitaries from all over Vancouver. Lots of time to plan...

Loss of a Loved Volunteer - Steve Beharriel

On November 20th, 2013 we lost one of our volunteers at the Street Market. Steve Beharriel was an RPIC (Responsible Person In Charge), and our Sergeant-At-Arms for the board of our Society. He had never missed a meeting for as long as people could remember, until he missed the Saturday meeting after welfare day. Later, on Sunday, we found out that the coroner had been to his room the day after welfare and taken him away. I can say that he was always pleasant to work with, never caused trouble and really loved the market. We talked briefly a few times and he told me that his mother was a school teacher. Friends say that his family is from Ontario. If anyone has any information about Steve's family, please send us an email or call us. roland.clarke@gmail.com 778-323-5415

Film Crew (NOT fifty shades of grey)

We had a film crew on the north end of Carrall St. doing some work inside the Rainier Provisions place. It turned out quite well since we were contacted by Ed McCurdy and others from the shoot ahead of time so that we could accommodate the project. We are told that the film studio is going to contribute $500 to the Street Market fund so all is good in the hood.

Strange Emergency Meeting with Brenda Prosken.

Last week we had a strange "emergency" meeting with Brenda Prosken about the Street Market. At the meeting were Mary Clare Zak, Brenda Prosken, and Debbie Anderson Eng. On our side was Jacek Lorek, Ann Livingston, and Marion Allaart. The point of the meeting seemed to be to tell us about a video that they online and were upset about, but nobody can find the video that they were talking about. It seems that the City of Vancouver job descriptions for paid employees includes spending hours perusing YouTube to find offending videos. Who knew? This is a nice job! I hear that it pays really well too! Still, we would like to see this video eventually and find out what it was exactly that set everyone off... was it possibly a difference in our senses of humor regarding bureaucratic red tape? Who can say for sure, right?

It was, however, mentioned again at this meeting that the City of Vancouver wants us to move from Pigeon Park on Sundays to the empty lot at 62 East Hastings St. Since the City of Vancouver has been so generous with their funding of the market so far ($30,000 for the year), we are definitely still talking to them.

We are not, however, moving from Pigeon Park on Sundays. This was the agreement that we made with City officials in August 21, 2012 and we are sticking to our side of it regardless of whether the City of Vancouver honors their side. Please find this agreement included as an attachment to this report.

Besides... without Power, Water, Bathrooms, or Garbage pickup, the lot at 62 East Hastings is very far from functional as a market site. If anyone wants to support a market on TUESDAYS at 62 East Hastings, please visit our indiegogo site at: http://www.indiegogo.com/projects/dtes-street-market

HXBIA Tool Share Library

On the bright side, we did buy a bunch of tools for the new HXBIA tool share library that will be hosted at 62 East Hastings St.
We purchased a gas powered pressure washer, a gas powered and an electric powered leaf blower (awesome at getting rid of the straggling vendors after a long Sunday), and a few rakes for help with the clean up.
Our goal is to set up a tool sharing library where local businesses within the BIA can borrow tools for free if there is a need. Next on the list of purchases... Dehumidifier, and a nice set of 18V tools.

Financial Report

1) Coffee/Pop Sales = $88.00
2) 50/50 Raffle = $50.00
3) Tables/Tents = $87.50

Total Revenue = $225.50
Total Spending for the week = $544.76
(Lots of spending associated with the gear up to start operation of the HXBIA tool library at 62 east hastings. Also, we purchased over $150 worth of new rain gear for the volunteers)

Petty cash now = $1,433.21

City of Vancouver Operational Grant

In preparation of our meeting with CoV for a renewal of our operational grant for 2014, I did a little analysis of where the CoV operational grant has been spent. Here is the spreadsheet that will be included in the report. As you can see, all of the CoV money (and more due to the fact that we heavily subsidize the market with our coffee/pop/tent money) goes directly to stipends for the volunteers. There is no coordinator salary, no stipend for this awesome reports, and no room for anything to be spent on anything else! There are also a number of other expenses of note that are not included on this spreadsheet because the petty cash paid for them: 1) $266 for an amendment to our development permit because we forgot something in the original development permit application that cost $529; 2) $116 for a building permit from the City of Vancouver even though we are not building anything; well... I could go on but I wont...

August 21, 2012 Agreement with CoV

Vendor Count = 105 @ noon
(Almost certainly because of the threat of rain, this number is lower than usual. Also, we had a film crew taking up about 1/5 of the market space on the north end of Carrall St.)