Street Market Report - January 12th, 2014

It was a typical rainy Vancouver winter day.

The second market of the year. 

Please visit - http://www.dtesstmkt.blogspot.ca/

It was the 188th Street Market at Pigeon Park on Sunday.

There is no other festival in the Downtown Eastside that can boast almost 200 event-days. This little street market is not only the heart of the Downtown Eastside, but possibly the largest historical event of the Downtown Eastside for all time. 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 join in this incredible celebration of micro-entrepreneurial spirit with the people of the DTES. 
In fact, we are thinking of extending the celebration to include three Sundays: April 6th, April 13th, and of course... April 20th!!

At 8:30am we had only two or three vendors arriving, and we almost thought that the market might not happen. I reassured the volunteers that once we had some tents up, the vendors and customers would come... and they did.

By noon we had about 60 vendors, which is not bad considering the conditions. Only the vendors that secured a tent could stay, and we had the most interest in our tables that I have seen in months.

Events of Note:
We had no injuries during the day, and virtually no one even needed the first aid kits.

We did get a visit from the vendor that we barred from the market last week, Fred. At about 3pm he was seen walking through the market and we did exactly what we rehearsed the day before at our job meeting.
About 7 or 8 volunteers gathered together and confronted him all at once. Richard was at the head of the group and had a copy of the letter that we gave him last week, and also the poster that we made barring him from the market. Despite some early protests, he left willingly. It was a clear triumph for the strength and resolve of the volunteers that we could handle this situation smoothly and without any physical violence.

There was also a curious thing that happened throughout the day that I couldn't help noticing.
Many of the normal 'misbehaving' or 'selling out of a bag' vendors were stopped by volunteers as normal and escorted out of the park. The vendors started setting up camp on the corner of Hastings and Carrall St., right near the Interurban gallery. They refused to move any further because they claimed that this was just a normal side walk. A quick conference among volunteers determined that they were right, and we just let them stay there. One vendor was even displaying meats openly on the side walk until the police came and chased him away.
This is another example in my mind of the market working perfectly. The stolen goods that are sold up and down Hastings are finally getting stopped at the border of our little market.

We purchased a small (1kW) generator at the market to supplement our solar powered off-grid system at 62 East Hastings.

Financial Report

1) Tents/Tables Rental = $104.00
2) Coffee/Pop Sales = $83.00
3) 50/50 Draw = $0.00

Total revenue for the day = $187.00
Total spending for the week = $292.99
Petty Cash now  = $630.34

Vendor Count = 60 @ noon
(Mainly due to the rain. As Jacek walked around later in the day, however, he noted that the number steadily went up as the day wore on and the weather improved)