DTES Street Market Reports: Street Market Report

It was a strange summer day.

Rain throughout, and at some times a torrential downpour.

Despite this, we had good stretches during which the weather was bright and sunny, and the market did quite well. The rain kept the crowd down a little, and the volunteers did a great job cleaning the park during and after the market.

The unit block and sidewalks farther east cleared out quite nicely during market hours. Right after the market finished, most of the vendors returned to vend in front of the old, now vacant, United We Can building.

We received some great news over the past week.

The City of Vancouver will help us with a pilot project to increase our capacity and security at the market.

We will employ private security from a local firm, so that there will be a necessary intermediate means of escalation between the street market volunteers and the police. We will be able to ensure that vendors that are not residents of the DTES will not be allowed to vend at our market, and we will be able to better enforce our reasonable market rules (no stolen goods, no weapons, no perishable food items, etc...).

Included in the pilot project will be the ability to print vendor ID badges, and to increase the number of volunteers to patrol the perimeter of the market, and help vendors find places if the market is crowded.

An exciting aspect of the project will be a large Greenway Mural that will define the eastern edge of the market. Local artists and artist organizations will be invited to participate and paint the nearly 40 panels of the 200 foot long mural.

We will be contacting the Guinness book of world records to determine if this would be the longest removable mural in Canada or the World.

We had very few interactions with the VPD on this Sunday.

Financial Report

1) Coffee/Pop Sales = $70.00

2) Table/Tent Rental = $123.00

3) 50/50 Raffle = $46.15

Total revenue for the day = $239.15

Total spending for the week = $198.04

Most of these purchases were made at Costco replenishing our supplies of pop, and about $55 in extra stipends for volunteers - oh... and $30 worth of milk crates for our emerging garden at 62 East Hastings St.

Petty cash now= $20.30

Vendor Report

We counted 96 at noon. This was right after the 20 minute downpour ended. If we had done the count at 11:30, we would have gotten a way bigger number. Vendors fluctuated wildly during the day due to the on and off rain.