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New Layouts Could Improve Vendor Options at Hollywood Farmers' Market, Most Require More Bucks for Traffic Control
Shopping at the HFM (Photo by Lucyrk in LA via the LAist Featured Photos pool on Flickr)
With only a temporary permit in place for accommodating street closures, the Hollywood Farmers' Market finds itself in a "you don't have to go home, but you can't stay here" situation as plotting a new layout to appease local businesses may prove to be the only solution to a months-long struggle. Squid Ink reports on a recent meeting held by non-profit market operator SEE-LA to present options for new layouts for the popular Sunday market:
Most of the new layouts actually expand the market by around 30 or more vendors (over the current 250 or so stalls at the market right now), but block off some pretty major thoroughfares in the process. In its current position, the market sits only on secondary streets (Ivar and Selma) and is flanked on all sides by major boulevards (Hollywood to the north, Sunset to the south, Vine to the east, and Cahuenga to the west). All but one of the new layouts require significant new traffic control schemes, which translate into more expenditures to cover those costs. Options included blocking off one or both directions of Hollywood Boulevard and possibly blocking off Vine south of Hollywood to Sunset with a crossbar at Selma.
While a move would appease the Los Angeles Film School, the business who is the primary challenger of the market's current street closure needs, SEE-LA says they refuse to "shoulder the costs associated with the relocation of portions of the market to busier thoroughfares." Would the Film School pay? A representative in attendance at the meeting said yes, however the amount and the terms of such an agreement have not been decided or disclosed.
The meeting, aimed at garnering public comment on the half dozen proposed redesigns for the market's layout, gave community members a chance to express their concerns that a significant change in the physical geography of the market might change the character of the market. In the meantime, the negotiations and planning continue.
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