We've been putting off posting this, since it is kind of a
downer. We've been big fans of the Port Angeles Farmers' Market for
years, even before it moved downtown. Then, we were even bigger fans
after it moved downtown, since we almost never got downtown, except to
have dinner at Bella Italia,
visit Port Book and News,
or see a movie at the Lincoln
Theatre. Now we had an excuse to shop downtown, and we did.
Let's face it, downtown Port Angeles is dying, what with a
Walmart a bit to the east, Sequim, even further east, turning into a
down market mega-mall, and the changes in the lumber and fishing
industries, the traditional mainstays of the town. There are some great
19th and early 20th century buildings downtown, but all too many empty
lots and closed stores. The Farmers' Market brought us, and many other
shoppers into town. There were even a few businesses that chose their
locations to take advantage of the market, and now we'll see how well
they do.
While we may have liked the Farmers' Market, it apparently
bothered a small group of local merchants, even though there were many
merchants in favor of it, and others who didn't care one way or the
other. These anti-market merchants seem to have gotten stuck back in
1952, but it's not 1952 anymore. The big timber is gone, and one man
with a chain saw and a self-loader can do the work of an entire team
back then. Rural downtowns have to compete with their own suburbs, and
everyone owns a car. If they don't find what they need in town, they
can drive to Sequim, or Silverdale, or Seattle, or whatever. Some will
even shop on the internet. Rather than embracing the Farmers' Market
and the foot traffic it brought, these merchants felt that it
interfered with their ability to park in front of their own stores,
that it interfered with what little traffic flowed along the truck
route
through downtown Port Angeles, and quite possibly that having spent
their money on a head of cabbage, few people would still be able to
afford any further shopping.
In any event, there was some politicking. There was the Port
Angeles Planning Commission meeting that ran into the wee hours. There
was the shutdown, more politicking, a reprieve, and then the market was
moved back to its old location at the Courthouse, as shown on the map
above. We like this location too, and we'll be there most Saturdays.
There is lots of parking near the Courthouse, and it's a bit closer to
our house. We often walk down the block to the big Safeway on Lincoln
Street to buy what we can't get at the Farmers' Market. But, we don't
get downtown as often, and we don't spend as much money there.
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