Street Market Report - December 15, 2013

The 184th Street Market at Pigeon Park on Sunday

Our 200th market day at Pigeon Park on Sunday will take place on April 6th - This will be a day of celebration for the Downtown Eastside. We plan to invite City Councillors, dignitaries, and anyone that wants to celebrate with the people of the DTES. 

Despite threats of rain, it was rain free for the entire day. A moderate December day, with low wind, 

The vendors were very well behaved this Sunday. We had no issues keeping the east side of Carrall clear, or the Church, or keeping order in most of the park. Clean up went well, we had the usual 1/2 tonne of garbage at the end of the day, and the volunteers did a stellar job as always. 
The tent crew is now so practised and professional that they are finishing the tear down of the tents in less than 15 minutes. That means that with a little more pay we could handle twice as many tents with ease.

I can't wait for this Summer...

Events of Note:
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We had a brief fight in the morning between two factions of the illicit drinkers. Bear broke up the fight, but was quite drunk himself and started mixing it up with one of our volunteers. The police came and helped, but the fight was over. Their presence did help, and we appreciated it. 

Illicit drinker fell over the fence and went to the hospital. An ambulance had to be called, and there was a significant quantity of blood on the side walk. We are lucky that many of the volunteers have their first aid training. 

There was a confiscation of a bicycle late in the day. The police behaved very properly and gave us an incident number - 13-206874. We are very appreciative when the VPD treats us with respect, and hope that this cooperation will continue in the future. 

Yukon Dan
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We had a special guest at the market this weekend, Yukon Dan. Dan gives demonstrations all around the province to children and community groups on how to pan for gold. He came and gave away several hundred dollars worth of gold to customers at the market this Sunday.

Cambridge House
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John Baldwin from the Cambridge house came down to Pigeon Park this Sunday. They initially wanted to give away free Chili, but I told them that this was not our model at the Street Market. There is so much begging culture in the Downtown Eastside, and we don't need more of it. It destroys the people's self esteem, it provides no employment and it lowers the value of people and things. What we want is pride, and economic activity. 
They took my advice and decided to sell the bowls of Chilli for $0.50 a bowl. If someone did not have the money, then they would offer the bowl for free. This way, us Downtown Eastsiders would get a sense of pride and buy our own lunch with the money that we earn for ourselves at the Street Market. This is the economic engine that we want to encourage. This is called uplift, and it is almost entirely absent from the charity models that our applied to our neighbourhood. 
The Cambridge House promised to donate whatever money that they made at The Market to the market fund. This way, the right economic choices are encouraged in our neighbourhood.

Thank you to the Cambridge House for coming to our market!

Financial Report
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1) Table/Tent Rental = $71.50
2) 50/50 Raffle = $50.35
3) Coffee/Pop Sales = $101.00

Total Revenue = $222.85
Total Spending for the week = $149.01
Total Profits for the week = $73.84
Labour supplement from revenue above CoV grant this week = $78.00

Petty cash now = $1,523.05

Vendor count = 141 @ noon