U.S. Cities Plan For Public Markets Of Fresh And Local Food

Monday, November 5th 2007, 6:47 am

By: News On 6

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) _ Growing interest in seasonal and locally sourced foods has created a fanfare for indoor public markets, where heirloom tomatoes are sold alongside artisan breads and freshly pressed olive oil.

Tourists have crowded places like San Francisco's gleaming new Ferry Building market and the Granville Island market in Vancouver, B.C., and the markets have encouraged nearby residential and commercial redevelopment.

But amid the acclaim, there are signs that public markets don't always pay off. That lesson has come painfully to cities with struggling or shuttered public markets, such as Portland, Maine; Toledo, Ohio; and Vancouver, Wash.

Indoor, year-round markets are expensive, and tough to get off the ground, particularly in pricey urban areas. Public markets in Portland, Ore. and Boston have been planned since the turn of the millennium, but construction at permanent locations has not begun.

Year-round, sheltered markets are also under discussion in Pittsburgh, Madison, Wis., and Chicago.

``You're trying to cobble together money from private sources, no-interest loans, grants, money from the city, economic development money,'' said Chris Heitmann, a policy analyst with the New York City-based Project for Public Spaces. ``Most of them are not going to break even in the first two to three years. Generally, they do stabilize over time.''

In colder climates, it's virtually impossible to maintain a year-round flow of locally grown fruits and vegetables. That means that produce dwindles or has to be trucked in from far away _ which goes against the locally grown ideal.

Public markets have also struggled to find a balance between selling raw ingredients and prepared food. Fresh produce, meat, fish, dairy and poultry distinguish a market from a food court. But Americans are geared toward a grab-and-go system, and prepared food is enticing to vendors because it has a far higher profit margin.

``If you go to a public market in Europe or Latin America, it is very difficult to find something to shove in your face and eat,'' said Wendy Baumann, who was one of the founders of the Milwaukee Public Market, which has weathered significant vendor turnover since it opened in 2005 and now emphasizes prepared foods. ``You can't be all to all.''

The nationwide growth of seasonal, outdoors farmers' markets, which in most climates run from early spring until mid-fall, provide fierce competition for customers and vendors.

``All the good vendors are already stretched thin,'' said Charlie Hertel, who was selling heaps of luscious late-summer peppers and melons from his Forest Grove, Ore., farm at a recent farmers' market in downtown Portland. ``And as I read the mission, customers are attending the market to meet the farmer, not a middleman.''

Public market devotees say the payoffs can more than make up for the pitfalls.

In Portland, organizers just got permission to name their planned market after James Beard, the Oregon native who is widely considered the father of American gastronomy.

``It will put Portland on the food map, and grow the awareness of local food,'' said Ron Paul, a former restaurateur who has been working on the nonprofit project since 1999.

Paul said the years spent planning for a market have let him learn from other startups. For example, he said he'd strive for a mix of vendors like those at Philadelphia's historic Reading Terminal Market, where there are at least two butchers, two bakers, and two produce vendors, each selling at different prices.

Markets can't have too many handicrafts vendors, he said, because they create a flea-market feel.

Year-round local produce in a climate like Oregon's is unlikely, Paul acknowledged. But vendors who sell meat or dairy products will welcome the chance to set up in a stall with proper refrigeration and display cases, instead of pulling their shrink-wrapped wares out of a cooler at an outdoor market.

To break even, some public markets have branched out far beyond the original concept of local, sustainable foods: The new managers of the Milwaukee Public Market in Wisconsin, for example, just announced that the venue will be available for weddings and other events.