HOW WE SEE IT: Tread Carefully Expanding Farmers’ Market

Each spring brings the rebirth of farmers markets in Northwest Arkansas. The Rogers Farmers Market opens Saturday at the corner of First and Walnut Streets, and Bentonville’s opens the same day on the downtown square. Springdale’s market opens May 4 at two locations, the Jones Center for Families and at Shiloh Square downtown. Fayetteville’s opened April 6, starting its 39th

season, on the downtown

square, and it has another

location at the Botanical

Garden of the Ozarks.

Markets are about

buying fresh produce,

flowers and a variety of

merchandise but some also become major threads in the fabric of their communities, not just through transactions, but interactions.

Fayetteville is a prime example. Given the opportunity, many residents will make sure any visitors get to sample the flavor of the market because it largely gives them a flavor of the city itself. The mix of viewpoints, the engagement of local leaders with their constituents, the communication of needs and services available from nonprofit groups, these are all a part of the vibrant Fayetteville Farmers’ Market.

Fayetteville’s market has a symbiotic relationship with the city’s government. City codes specifically created the market and sets out the permissions the market’s nonprofit operator needs to function in the public square.

As we’ve noted before, Alderman Matthew Petty recently proposed changes he believes will strengthen the Farmers’ Market. His proposal would give the Rural Mountain Producers Exchange - the organization that operates the market - legal authority to close the downtown square to vehicles on Saturdays. This will allow the exchange to involve more vendors.

The exchange has had legal authority for some time to close East Avenue. Without legal authority, the exchange has also for a few years closed Mountain Street. Petty’s plan would permit the exchange to shut down Block Avenue and Center Street as well, although vendors would be barred from the west side of Block Avenue.

Chief among the concerns of city leaders must be preservation of not just the marketing of cucumbers and squash, but of of ideas. The focus of the Rural Mountain Producer’s Exchange is on selling. It has been city government’s continued involvement that has ensured the weekly Saturday sessions are a celebration of public interaction. It’s a challenge to balance that sense of community and the commerce.

While Petty admirably wants to expand a good thing, there’s always a concern that one can monkey with it too much. Is his proposal too much? Perhaps not, but more than one venture has been killed by growing themselves out of the qualities that make it so special.

One final concern: ensuring the operators of the Farmers’ Market preserve the public square and all that historically entails. Ensuring free speech and available space for nonprofit groups is vital.

Otherwise, the market would be just another store.

Petty’s proposal sets aside a minimum of 28 feet on either side of each closed street as exhibition space for nonprofit groups, but can be used for vendors if not used by nonprofits. Just as the market consumed Mountain Street on its own, the long-term concern is how to make sure the exchange preserves and promotes nonprofit use of that space. The city will need to monitor that well.

We appreciate Petty’s move to adjust to today’s conditions. The City Council must carefully weigh the best way to ensure the community interests are well served by the arrangement for the Farmers’ Market.

Opinion, Pages 5 on 04/25/2013

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