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211th DTES Street Market – Happy Summer Solstice!
211th DTES Street Market and 25th Street Market of 2014
Roland Clarke, Coordinator of the DTES Street Market says:
It was wonderful weather this Sunday – our solstice market.
This Sunday, we took the opportunity to beef up some of our operations, in preparation for the approval of our new operational grant.
We added an extra few people in the morning – to clean up the park and also to prevent people from setting up early. They will also be responsible for deploying the extra fencing when the security guards are hired.
We added an extra tent/table person to help distribute the tables after the tents are set up. In the coming weeks we will add more tables and make sure that all the vendors have an opportunity to raise their items off of the ground.
We also did a count of vendors on the three blocks east of the market while the market was going on. We found only 15 vendors on these three blocks at noon.
At 7:30pm, I went back and counted the same three blocks and found 61 vendors up and down the sidewalk from Gore to Carrall St.
We had one notable incident with the police where a couple that dresses in hippy clothes where taken away. The RPICs said that the items that the police found in their bag was not ok – items had price tags and looked brand new (such as socks, clothing, and electronic items). We will discuss this at our board meeting and make sure that they are not allowed back into the market.
Truck dropping off 40ft Storage Container at Area 62 – DTES Street Market in Vancouver
Truck dropping off 40ft Storage Container at Area 62 – DTES Street Market – 62 East Hastings in Vancouver
210th DTES Street Market in Vancouver – Happy Father’s Day!
210th DTES Street Market and 24th Street Market of 2014
Roland Clarke, Coordinator of the DTES Street Market says:
It was a strange summer day.
Rain throughout, and at some times a torrential downpour.
Despite this, we had good stretches during which the weather was bright and sunny, and the market did quite well. The rain kept the crowd down a little, and the volunteers did a great job cleaning the park during and after the market.
The unit block and sidewalks farther east cleared out quite nicely during market hours. Right after the market finished, most of the vendors returned to vend in front of the old, now vacant, United We Can building.
We received some great news over the past week.
The City of Vancouver will help us with a pilot project to increase our capacity and security at the market.
We will employ private security from a local firm, so that there will be a necessary intermediate means of escalation between the street market volunteers and the police. We will be able to ensure that vendors that are not residents of the DTES will not be allowed to vend at our market, and we will be able to better enforce our reasonable market rules (no stolen goods, no weapons, no perishable food items, etc…).
Included in the pilot project will be the ability to print vendor ID badges, and to increase the number of volunteers to patrol the perimeter of the market, and help vendors find places if the market is crowded.
An exciting aspect of the project will be a large Greenway Mural that will define the eastern edge of the market. Local artists and artist organizations will be invited to participate and paint the nearly 40 panels of the 200 foot long mural.
We will be contacting the Guinness book of world records to determine if this would be the longest removable mural in Canada or the World.
We had very few interactions with the VPD on this Sunday.
Roland Clarke, Jacek Lorek and Richard Cunningham have their photos taken by Ben Nelms of The Globe and Mail newspaper
Roland Clarke, Jacek Lorek and Richard Cunningham of DTES Street Market have their photos taken by Ben Nelms, of The Globe and Mail Newspaper in Vancouver Downtown Eastside (DTES) 
209th DTES Street Market in Vancouver
209th DTES Street Market and 23rd Street Market of 2014
Roland Clarke, Coordinator of the DTES Street Market says:
It was a beautiful day.
Only a slight hint of rain kept the weather nice and cool throughout the afternoon.
It was a near perfect day in a street market that was very near capacity.
Despite this, there were no major incidents.
We had a vendor that was kicked out (due to not being from the neighbourhood, and previously selling questionable goods) come back. Due to some help from the VPD, we removed her again from the market.
We also had another positive interaction with the VPD when a vendor was directed to the market from where they were originally selling – on the unit block of East Hastings St.
The vendor came down, and then we tried to find him a new spot within the market, since he originally set up on the east side of Carrall St.
He was a little upset about being moved again, and said he would just go home. We tried to help him, and got good help from the VPD during the interaction.
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