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Boston seeks to create daily fresh-food market
By adamg on Sat, 02/21/2009 - 10:01am
The Globe reports:
The market would be opened in a vacant building that occupies a full city block near Haymarket, an area of old cobblestone alleys where city officials want to create an expansive year-round shopping district with dozens of local growers, bakers, seafood merchants, and other businesses.
Imagine Haymarket open every day and selling stuff fresh from the dock or farm and without, as the Globe says, merchants yelling at people who spend too long staring at tomatoes. In other words, what Quincy Market was originally built to be.
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Comments
Sounds good
They mean the building that also houses the Orange Line / Green Line station?
That's not a bad idea, that building has been empty since it was built. The retail space is very gloomy, though, and I think it has low ceilings. And, the windows are not that large, so I don't think it would be visible to regular passersby.
If they do it, the merchants will be paying rent, right?
This is an exciting idea
Toronto has a wonderful market like this, and so do many other cities. I think it would make a fabulous addition to the city.
I think it's a great
I think it's a great idea.
The Weekend market is nice and all, but it's only on the weekend. Just trying to find a head of lettuce to bring home on your way on a tuesday night from downtown is almost impossible.
Also..
The majority of produce at Haymarket on the weekends isn't any different than what one would get at the supermarket. Most of the vendors all come from the wholesale produce markets in Chelsea to sell off the surplus produce that the supermarkets and food service customers didn't buy to make room for more shipments. It would be nice to get local and organic produce somewhere during the off season..
Surplus as in rotting and with all nutrition gone....
I'm dismayed that the market that I've wanted for so long might be, in any way, near -- associated with-- confused with--- helpful to-- or insure the survival of Haymarket.
Can you just hear the complaints when the fresh picked, local delicious strawberries are $6 a quart when you can get a flat of rotting ones from a pushcart for $1? We'll hear cries of "These farmers are thieves!"
Haymarket is, in many cases, the source of reduced quality, second-rate, and a place for some con-artists; while the proposed Public Market is ths source of environmentally responsible, nutritious, fresh and local food. They are not compatible. They have different customers with different wants.
I think the Haymarket vendors would benefit from the Public Market but I don't see how allowing the Haymarket to camp and strew their garbage around outside the public market will benefit our farmers.
They should be miles apart. Perhaps then, a real market would end the garbage-strewn reality of Haymarket.
As always, my final question on the siting of this project is who will benefit. Who will make $$$$ on this.
That would be a dream come
That would be a dream come true. I'd go every week.
This one I could go for
Now somebody put their thinking cap on! We don't have to reinvent the wheel. I'd buy stuff there.
This would be a dream come
This would be a dream come true for me. If it was on par with, say, Reading Terminal Market in Philly it would be a daily destination for me and my tot. Boston has indeed been lacking the great daily markets that are so fabulous to visit in other world-class cities. My very favorite is outdoors, the Viktualienmarkt in Munich, but other indoor markets like Pike Place in Seattle would surely do just as well in Boston.
as it turns out
one of the consultants to the BRA is the former head of the Reading Terminal in Philly.
GMTA
The Reading Terminal Market in Philly is one of the great treasures in the U.S., and it's the only thing they have down there that makes me jealous. It would just *rock* to have something like that here.
Oh Please Oh Please Oh Pleeeeeeeeeease!
That whole area sucks bigtime for groceries and produce. Nothing but CVS, dunkin donuts, fast food, and massively overpriced lunch options. I'd go to haymarket, but I'm a workerbee in the area and anything I buy on Friday is not fresh for the next work week.
My coworkers and I would so be there all the time, especially now that our new digs have counter space to work with.
Local grocers nearby
There are a few on the other side of the Greenway, on Salem Street and other North End back streets. Also Golden Goose Market on Commercial Street.
But yeah, the neighborhood also has waited much too long for the Stop & Shop that's supposed to be built on one of the Bulfinch Triangle lots.
A bit of a hike
I can make it to Golden Goose or even to Whole Paycheck on Cambridge St. IF I have a bike and panniers. Even then, I need to lug bags up two elevators from a garage.
The stores you mention are a bit too far from the South Station/Financial District area - over a mile each way is really too much walking to fit into a lunch hour. I do go to C-Mart, which has decent produce, but it tends to be a bit exotic to get the sorts of things to eat for lunch every day.
It is about 1/2 mile for us downtown officebots to get to this proposed market location.
By "that whole area"
I thought you meant Haymarket/North End. (But still, we should have lunch sometime.)
Going Bananas on Salem Street is just a block from the proposed market location.
One other idea then, closer to you: Lambert's Marketplace
fantastic idea!
What a great idea! It would be nice to to freeze/sweat to death while picking up fruits and veg. I rather like the vendors yelling at people, though. Part of the charm of Haymarket is learning the ropes.
Flying fish
John Cass, who's lived in several places with public markets, ponders what would make Boston's successful:
Haymarket
I never understood the alure of this place. Most of the goods at the carts where marginal at best. Produce at times was ready to turn bad. If you wanted to handle the stuff the vendors would upbraid you. If this building comes to fruition(!) it shoiuld have some sort of rules regarding the quality of the goods as well as the manner in which the vendors conduct their business.
I would pay more to have
I would pay more to have gorgeous, quality produce. One thing I love about Reading Terminal Mkt is the excellent vegetarian sandwiches and prepared foods you can buy. I suppose that sort of stall would compete against the food courts in Quincy Mkt, but to my mind, they are different.
Good points, pit3012.
However, I think that many, if not the majority of people flock to Haymarket not necessarily and only because it's close to where they live/work, but because it's cheaper.
I do agree with you wholeheartedly, though, pit3012, about the quality of much of the food, including and especially the produce. The quality of all the goods should be monitored better, and so should the treatment of customers by vendors. One longtime family friend mentioned that whenever she went down to Haymarket, that, while many of the vendors upbraided everybody for touching the goods, they were especially abusive to non-white customers.