DTES Street Market Reports: Street Market Report

It was wonderful weather this Sunday - our solstice market.

This Sunday, we took the opportunity to beef up some of our operations, in preparation for the approval of our new operational grant.

We added an extra few people in the morning - to clean up the park and also to prevent people from setting up early. They will also be responsible for deploying the extra fencing when the security guards are hired.

We added an extra tent/table person to help distribute the tables after the tents are set up. In the coming weeks we will add more tables and make sure that all the vendors have an opportunity to raise their items off of the ground.

We also did a count of vendors on the three blocks east of the market while the market was going on. We found only 15 vendors on these three blocks at noon.
At 7:30pm, I went back and counted the same three blocks and found 61 vendors up and down the sidewalk from Gore to Carrall St.

We had one notable incident with the police where a couple that dresses in hippy clothes where taken away. The RPICs said that the items that the police found in their bag was not ok - items had price tags and looked brand new (such as socks, clothing, and electronic items). We will discuss this at our board meeting and make sure that they are not allowed back into the market.