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DTES Street Market at Pigeon Park in Vancouver Downtown Eastside (DTES) on Sun Dec 15, 2013
Sunday Dec 15, 2013
Roland Clarke, Coordinator of the DTES Street Market says:
This was the 184th Street Market at Pigeon Park on Sunday!
Our 200th market day at Pigeon Park on Sunday will take place on April 6th – This will be a day of celebration for the Downtown Eastside. We plan to invite City Councillors, dignitaries, and anyone that wants to celebrate with the people of the DTES.
Despite threats of rain, it was rain free for the entire day. A moderate December day, with low wind,
The vendors were very well behaved this Sunday. We had no issues keeping the east side of Carrall clear, or the Church, or keeping order in most of the park. Clean up went well, we had the usual 1/2 tonne of garbage at the end of the day, and the volunteers did a stellar job as always.
The tent crew is now so practised and professional that they are finishing the tear down of the tents in less than 15 minutes. That means that with a little more pay we could handle twice as many tents with ease.
I can’t wait for this Summer…
Yukon Dan
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We had a special guest at the market this weekend, Yukon Dan. Dan gives demonstrations all around the province to children and community groups on how to pan for gold. He came and gave away several hundred dollars worth of gold to customers at the market this Sunday.
Cambridge House
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John Baldwin from the Cambridge house came down to Pigeon Park this Sunday. They initially wanted to give away free Chili, but I told them that this was not our model at the Street Market. There is so much begging culture in the Downtown Eastside, and we don’t need more of it. It destroys the people’s self esteem, it provides no employment and it lowers the value of people and things. What we want is pride, and economic activity.
They took my advice and decided to sell the bowls of Chilli for $0.50 a bowl. If someone did not have the money, then they would offer the bowl for free. This way, us Downtown Eastsiders would get a sense of pride and buy our own lunch with the money that we earn for ourselves at the Street Market. This is the economic engine that we want to encourage. This is called uplift, and it is almost entirely absent from the charity models that our applied to our neighbourhood.
The Cambridge House promised to donate whatever money that they made at The Market to the market fund. This way, the right economic choices are encouraged in our neighbourhood.
Thank you to the Cambridge House for coming to our market!
Pigeon Park Street Market by the DTES Street Market Society – Sun Dec 1, 2013
Roland Clarke, Coordinator says:
182 Sunday Markets at Pigeon Park!
Surprisingly sunny despite reports of rain! To me, anyway, this is clear proof that the gods of weather surely shine on our little market here in the DTES.I did a little calculation earlier today, and figured out that this market, on December 1, 2013 is actually the 182nd consecutive market held at Pigeon Park on Sunday for the past 3 and half years. 182 markets is nothing to sniff at. It takes a lot of hard work and dedication at the hands of the volunteers and the coordinators.
Here is how I did the calculation:
1) The first Sunday market at Pigeon Park was held on June 13, 2010
2) 29 market days were held in 2010, 52 in 2011, 53 in 2012
3) December 1 is the 48th market held on Sunday in 2013
This gives a total of 182 Sundays where there was a market held at Pigeon Park by the DNC or the DTES Street Market Society.Our 200th market day will take place on April 6th (close to my birthday), and I am proposing a large celebration for this event. We should invite the mayor, councilors and dignitaries from all over Vancouver. Lots of time to plan…
Loss of a Loved Volunteer – Steve Beharriel
On November 20th, 2013 we lost one of our volunteers at the Street Market. Steve Beharriel was an RPIC (Responsible Person In Charge), and our Sergeant-At-Arms for the board of our Society. He had never missed a meeting for as long as people could remember, until he missed the Saturday meeting after welfare day. Later, on Sunday, we found out that the coroner had been to his room the day after welfare and taken him away. I can say that he was always pleasant to work with, never caused trouble and really loved the market. We talked briefly a few times and he told me that his mother was a school teacher. Friends say that his family is from Ontario.
DTES Street Market on Sunday Oct 27, 2013
Very well attended Street Market before Hallowe’en brought out the fun in everyone in Vancouver Downtown Eastside (DTES)
Roland Clarke says:
It was an amazing Sunday for October. The sun was out and the vendors were happy and out in great numbers. Normally we see a marked decline in the number of vendors right after a welfare Wednesday, and this Sunday, we actually got more vendors than we did the week before. This is almost certainly due to the great weather. I remember hearing on the radio that if Sunday was rain free, it would be the longest rain free spell in October in Vancouver history. I think we missed it because of a brief shower at 6am.
The Kindness of Vendors
Today, as last week, I was really struck by what an amazing thing this Street Market has become. Over 150 vendors, packed into the smallest urban park in Vancouver, and very few fights, very few incidents or altercations. Again, this morning, I had a number of vendors be very accommodating when we asked them to move. It is as if the importance of the market really has filtered down through the culture of the vendors in a way that we did not anticipate. In other ways, I saw great generosity from the vendors. If a customer clearly did not have the money for an item, more than once, I saw a vendor just offer it to the person, or discount it to a dollar. It is this that is also an amazing essence of the market. It is survival vending, and if a vendor feels that they have ‘made enough’ that day, then they can be very generous. The idea, of course, is that the customer may be a vendor to them in the future, and they will receive a benefit from this increased social capital. This is also something that is so missing from the box stores and malls that we have built around us. With the store clerks that are travelling miles to work, and the customers that park en mass in the cold underground parking, we lose that sense of community. The sense that commerce really is the origin of community. The market square IS the origin of the town, and that is the origin of a sense of belonging and neighbourhood. We need this kind of personal interaction with each other, and we need to feel that we are interacting with our neighbors. We need the feeling that the person across the counter is part of our community, and that her/his hard work makes them deserving of the little price increase that they receive by cleaning up the item, or knowing all about it, or telling you a story about it. There is something so genuinely human about this level of interaction and it transcends language, ideology and race. It is something magical that creates a feeling of belonging, and it exists at the Pigeon Park Street Market.
Pigeon Park Street Market in Vancouver Downtown Eastside (DTES) on Sunday Oct 13 2013
Sunny breezy weather during Sunday Street Market had vendors and peer workers of the DTES Street Market Society enjoying a fun Thanksgiving in Vancouver Downtown Eastside (DTES)
Roland Clarke, Coordinator says:
The first sunny day in weeks came to the DTES on Sunday.
We had very little police presence, and very few incidents. The market was packed with near record number of vendors and customers, and we had a film crew with AHA Media doing a promo piece for us.One of our patron funders from the City of Vancouver – George Walker – came down to the market twice and had some very kind and supportive words for us.
The holiday spirit was in the air, lots of Halloween costumes and fun items were present. Lots of people were talking about upcoming Thanksgiving feasts.
We got a huge donation of hockey equipment that we could not sell, but come look for it next week.
It is on days like this that I have renewed faith in the DTES and its residents. Rain or shine, the market will continue. If we get a brief respite from the rain, a huge crowd returns to the square and fills this area with life.
We have 52 markets per year. This dwarfs any other festival in the city. In fact, I like to think of the DTES Street Market as the Iron Man of Vancouver Festivals. Always there, every Sunday, with virtually no funding and no support, the Market will soldier on. It embodies the spirit of the DTES – that against any hardship, any weather, any attacks, we will persevere.
Come down and buy a coffee or a pop any given Sunday, and support your neighbourhood at its finest.
Pigeon Park Street Market in Vancouver Downtown Eastside (DTES) on Sunday Oct 6 2013
Gorgeous Warm weather during Sunday Street Market had vendors and peer workers of the DTES Street Market Society enjoying a festival atmosphere in Vancouver Downtown Eastside (DTES)
Roland Clarke, Coordinator says:
Solidarity in Vending
The weather was awesome. Perhaps the last great day of the year, it was almost summer again. A great break from the two Sundays of rain we just survived.
There is a subject that I’ve been thinking about for quite some time, and it is a subtle, but important one. The subject is why we, as coordinators of the market actually spend a portion of the day selling things ourselves.
During the day, I, Roland spend a lot of the day selling coffee and pop to raise money for the market. Also, Jacek sells 50/50 raffle tickets. Between these two activities (and the renting of tents and tables) we manage to raise more than $200 per week on average that can help pay for street market incidentals. This allows us to fund experiments, like bannock and muffin sales, and also buy new tents and tables when they get broken. Having petty cash on hand is extremely valuable, and we couldn’t run the market without it. We also provide on average about $500 in change to shoppers that come in with $20 bills and need smaller denominations. This way the vendors also do not need to keep so much cash on hand.
There is an additional, very important reason that the organizers of a grass roots street market should themselves engage in survival vending. This is because it is an essential statement of solidarity with the vendors we are trying to organize and build community. We recognize that life is hard, and all the rest of the vendors must scrounge for ways to hustle and survive at the market, so we do it too. We have to find a way to sell coffee for $1, and still make a profit. We then provide this benefit to the community in the form of cheap beverages, which the vendors are happy to purchase from us. It is in this way that we have inserted ourselves into the ecosystem instead of just trying to manage it from above. This builds trust, it cements solidarity, and it allows us to understand and relate to the struggles of the population that we are trying to protect.
This is why we vend.
This is why we must continue to vend to keep the spirit of the market pure.
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