May 22, Eastern Market Preservation and Development Corporation (EMPDC) President Ellen Opper-Weiner held a press conference to announce the release of a report commissioned and paid for by the organization entitled, DC’s Eastern Market: How to Save an Endangered Treasure.
The event also served to announce the presence of EMPDC, which presented itself as the re-invigoration of an organization active in the 1980s and still represented on the Eastern Market Community Advisory Committee (EMCAC) by Richard Layman.
The report, authored by consultant Aaron Zaretsky of Public Market Development, found that “the issue with the market comes down to mismanagement of the market by the city” including non-compliance with the legislation governing the market and the absence of lease agreements for the South Hall merchants, Opper-Weiner stated.
Recommendations
The report, available online, makes a total of 22 recommendations. Some of these are along familiar lines; it recommends that Seventh Street SE be reopened to traffic and parking on weekends and that additional promotion of the South Hall fresh food merchants be initiated.
It recommends that the city-managed flea market be removed from the 300 block of Seventh Street SE once its public permit expires in October 2018.
The North Hall is currently rented out for community events, but when it is not it creates an impression of emptiness to customers entering from that direction, the report states. It recommends it filled with fresh food production. All event functions should be moved to the “underutilized” Hill Center,” the report recommended.
Eastern Market currently has only a single permanent African-American tenant in its South Hall. The report recommends that efforts be made to recruit additional African-American vendors and “additional uses especially targeted toward the African American community.”
The Market’s success is tied to its “historic role as the District’s sole fresh food and farmers Public Market,” the report states. It recommends against promoting a ‘festival atmosphere’ geared towards millennial families at the expense of the health of the Market as a whole.
The report also recommends that management of Eastern Market be contracted to a not-for-profit newly created for that purpose. After which, the Eastern Market Community Advisory Committee (EMCAC) should be disbanded, the report states since it has no real power or input.
Asked if her EMPDC organization was interested in managing the market, Opper-Weiner said that the organization was “not anywhere close to that. We have not thought about that or discussed it as yet,” later adding that it was “not in the plans.”
Not Endangered?
Artist Joe Snyder, a long-time vendor at the flea market outside Eastern Market, staged a one-man protest at the event. He carried a sign that read ‘EASTERN MARKET IS NOT ENDANGERED (DESPITE THE HYPE).’ He said that a surplus of $630,000 in the Market’s Enterprise Fund did not seem to indicate a troubled situation.
In a handout distributed at the event, Snyder said that there was no shortage of entrepreneurs willing to replace any of the business people at Eastern Market. “Performance and prosperity of the individual small business that make up the Eastern Market complex are, as always, dependent of the entrepreneurial skills of each business,” he wrote.
Whither EMPDC
EMPDC was formally incorporated Dec. 31, 1987 as a non-profit for the purpose of managing all market-related activities. Over the years, however, hip and activity dwindled, and it has not maintained a corporate registration in the District for many years.
The original EMPDC license was revoked by the city five or six years ago after the organization did not pay licensing fees or issue annual reports, Opper-Weiner stated. “So we decided to re-up it because of our concern about this market being threatened, and caring about it.”
Layman, who has represented EMPDC on EMCAC since 2007, was not been consulted before the group was re-certified. He itted that EMPDC has lacked hip for about the last eight years or so. “There is no question that I have been remiss in not recruiting for what is a hip organization,” he said. “But it would have been nice if they consulted me first.”
Opper-Weiner acknowledged that Layman had not been involved in the re-certification of EMPDC. She said they would work together moving forward.
EMCAC Chair Donna Scheeder said that her understanding was that the EMPDC organization that released the report on May 22nd was different from that represented on EMCAC.
The legislation governing EMCAC is highly specific as to what groups could be represented on the committee, she pointed out, adding that there is currently no legislative means to eliminate representation of an organization recognized in the law or to add voting representatives.
EMCAC has sought guidance from the city on the matter. “We have asked for a legal opinion, but we still haven’t gotten one,” Scheeder said.
Speaking after the press conference, Layman agreed with some aspects of the report. The District is not focused on addressing the challenges of running a retail asset, he said. However, there are problems outside of management.
Trying to analyze issues with Eastern Market is “like the story of the blind men and the elephant,” he observed. “Each person touches a different part of the elephant and believes that their particular piece defines the whole.”
“It’s more complicated. Everyone thinks the problem is one thing. It isn’t.”
The report, Layman points out, is focused on compliance with the legislation. Changes in legislation are necessary to allow the market to adapt to the changing community, he continued. “Frankly, it’s been 21 years since the law ed and it needs to be evaluated.”
Layman called for a more comprehensive business plan for the Market and its immediate area that needs to take into the retail development in the surrounding area.
“The competition has completely changed,” Layman said, noting the increased number of grocery stores and farmers markets that have opened along H Street NE, in Southeast and Southwest since the 2007 fire at Eastern Market.
New Budget Transparency
Referring to the EMPDC report, Scheeder said EMCAC is always happy to receive more information about the market. While the report contains some good ideas, a much broader review of the Market, its management and its place in the community is necessary, she continued.
At the EMCAC meeting on May 23, Scheeder announced that the committee had completed one step to reaching that goal. $300,000 will be transferred from the Eastern Market Enterprise Fund to complete and implement the results of a “professional, data-driven study” that will offer a strategic plan for Eastern Market and the Eastern Market Special Area.
As well, for the first time next year, the budget for Eastern Market will be referred to EMCAC for recommendation before it is submitted to the District Council. This will involve the creation of a standalone budget for the market that provides much-need clarity on its income and expenditure. Now, EMCAC will start to receive quarterly reports from DGS. Scheeder said this decision was due to testimony from herself and others at Council Budget Oversight hearings this spring.
In addition, Councilmember Charles Allen (Ward 6-D) has successfully pushed to include funding in the District’s FY 2019 budget for capital improvements to the building, as well as $25,000 allocated for bollards and a security assessment of the Seventh Street SE street market, Scheeder stated.
Scheeder emphasized the need for all stakeholders to work together for the future of Eastern Market. She said she had issues ing the study recommendation to relocate the flea market from the 300 block of Seventh Street SE.
“I like to say that the market is a three-legged stool. The farmers are one leg, the indoor fresh food merchants another, and the outside vendors [the third]: losing any one leg would cause the whole thing to fall,” Scheeder said.
“Any study that says a certain part of the market shouldn’t be there anymore –I have trouble giving that ,” Scheeder noted. “To me, recommendations like that one are non-starters.”
“This is people’s livelihood, and we can all prosper if we work together,” Scheeder stated.
