Raise the Hammer

Thanks for your contribution, Jason!

On the topic of food markets...

One key consideration to keep in mind easier and clearer access to Library market too. Biking and transit infrastructure is still somewhat poor (unlike back in the old days of the early Farmer Market), and parking is sometimes still inconvenient.

MacNab is a fairly tame bike route, and is also an easy car access to the MacNab parking garage. I have a suggestion to install a sign a Cannon-MacNab intersection "<----- LIBRARY MARKET <------" as more than once keep forgetting Library Market is a mere 2 blocks down that route, and that I could quickly get an ingredient or two. Such a sign would help support farmers if it attracted a mere few additional people per month -- more than quickly paying for the cost of a simple placard mounted on the existing lightpole?

Also, my spouse in the Sherman Hub area who does not currently drive, has been meaning to visit the International Village Bazaar market but it opens and ends too early, and it's not currently (yet) on an easy cycle route or frequent transit route. Buses don't run very much during these International Village market hours (and the B-Line Express doesn't run weekends yet). So my spouse has not bothered going to International Village. Also, from a residential neighborhood point of view (to the south and to the east), the market "feels" islanded behind arteries (Main/Victoria/Wellington/etc).

The International Village Bazaar is fairly quieter than it could be -- due to its relative inaccessibility by non-car-users at the hours it's open at. I wonder if that (reduction in vendors?) contributed to cancellation of the August 9th Bazaar final weekend. It's the combination of factors such as lack of transit, lack of safe-feeling bike access, many pedestrian-unfriendly crossings (especially for kids and older Hamiltonians) dividing it from residential neighborhoods.

So not just having Farmer Markets -- but easier access to Farmer Markets as the pedestrian audience is a fairly prime audience for inexpensive farmer market food (whether being retirees, yuppies, enviro-conscious residents, artists, jobless saving money, health-conscious cyclists wanting fresher food, car-owners preferring not to use car on weekends, etc), but we have difficulty accessing some of the markets without a car -- a conundrum.

Comment edited by mdrejhon on 2015-08-18 15:49:07