Street Market Report - April 13, 2014

A beautiful spring day, not a cloud in the sky.

A number of interesting incidents happened during the day.

This was the first Sunday this season where we washed the park early in the morning. The crew - two volunteers and Jacek - arrived at 7am, took out the hose and washed the whole park area and the north end of Carrall St.
This helped a little bit with the vendors that like to arrive early and set up before our permit time.

At about 11am some of the volunteers noticed that one woman was selling items that looked too new, and were suspect. The items were new shoes, OTC medication, perfume and cologne. When the volunteers confronted her, she started packing up right away, but refused to leave the market. When the volunteers asked for police assistance in removing the vendor, the police refused. Our volunteers were told that "they [the police] could not confirm that the goods were stolen, so they would not assist". They also told the volunteers that the vendor was in a public place so they could not remove her. When the coordinator informed the police officers that the vendor was not in a public place, and we had permits for the area, the police continued to refuse assistance. The vendor remained until the end of the day.

We had a record number of vendors at the park today - over 235 counted at noon.

The bottle block (unit block of Hastings St.) was completely empty during the market, more signs that the market is the preferred vending area for people that perform survival vending during the week.

Bottle block at 11am on Sunday April 13th, 2014

We celebrated our 201st market, and put flags on all the tents.

After our press release, we had a number of reporters come down to the market. We had City TV, the Province, Metro News, and Radio Canada French.

Here is a sample of some of the great coverage we got...

http://www.theprovince.com/news/Inside+Downtown+Eastside+Sunday+street+market/9734748/story.html

Inside the Downtown Eastside Sunday street market

www.theprovince.com

Chris Scott says if it wasn’t for the weekly Downton Eastside Street Market, he’d be in jail. At the location next to Pigeon Park in East Vancouver where he has sold his used goods for four years, Scott said on Sunday the weekly market helps him stay clean and sober and out...

http://metronews.ca/news/vancouver/1002221/street-vendors-challenge-vancouver-bylaws-in-court/

Street vendors challenge Vancouver bylaws in court

metronews.ca

While dozens of street vendors hawked their wares at the 200th Downtown Eastside Sunday Street Market, four were preparing for their day in court. 

Survey Results

We sent out a volunteer between about noon and 1pm to collect some survey data from our vendors. The background is that we meet with the City of Vancouver and the Vancouver Police every week now, and one of the questions that we were asked was whether the vendors would want a market on another day of the week besides Sunday (additional day), and if they did, what day of the week would they prefer? Here are the results:

1) Would you vend on another day of the week? Yes = 57, No = 14

2) What other day besides Sunday would you prefer?
Monday = 7
Tuesday = 4
Wednesday = 12
Thursday = 3
Friday = 7
Saturday = 38

So, clearly, Saturday is the clear winner with 58% of responses. Over 80% of vendors would like an opportunity to vend on another day of the week besides Sunday. 30% of the total vendors at the DTES Street Market were surveyed. Good stuff! thanks Gary!

Financial Report

1) Table/Tent Rental = $102.25
2) Coffee/Pop Sales = $160.00
3) 50/50 Raffle = $60.50
Total revenue for the day = $322.75
Total spending for the week = $295.09

Petty cash now = $538.95

Vendor Count = 253 @ noon 
This is a record number of vendors for the Pigeon Park Street Market!!!

Bathroom Usage Stats
We had 76 use the bathrooms from 10am to 1pm
no data for the afternoon shift, did not get the clicker back