Soulard Farmers' Market: Comments from Insiders and Guide for Beginners
Good Neighbors Create Better Neighborhoods
Soulard in Literature: Stephen E. Ambrose, Tim Fox and Eric Sandweiss, Betty Pavlige, Arthur Proetz and Adolf Schultz
Soulard Market Regulars, Page Three
Spice is Nice
Sandra reports that the reasons the improvement program was shelved are varied. Tom believes some resistance might have stemmed from the demise of Union Market downtown in the shadow of the Convention Center.
 Sandra Zak, Soulard Market master, comments that the facility is "a St. Louis institution." (People Productions photo by Clark Rowley) |
Somewhat similar to Soulard Market, Union Market "was closed down to be renovated. All the vendors were forced to leave. When it re-opened, booth costs were too high and the market had lost all its character," he reports. "It looked like St. Louis Centre," Tom observes. "It was a disaster."
Sandra says that type of re-do was nowhere in the cards for Soulard Market. It is all beside the point, now, however. "The situation has changed," Sandra explains. "The money has dried up at this time."
Interestingly, the drive to catch up with years of missed maintenance not only failed, but it generated considerable misinformation and misunderstanding.
One of the peculiar charges circulated was that the thrust of the effort was to gentrify Soulard Market, to attempt to drive out low income shoppers.
Sandra calls that idea ridiculous. "Soulard Market has always been for all the residents of the metro area."
Gina, who has been shopping at the market for over two decades, adds that "I do not subscribe to the concept that low income people want a dingy place to shop. People on limited incomes deserve and appreciate the same service and pleasant shopping environment as anybody else." Gina is the executive director of the St. Louis Association of Community Organizations.
 Donald Danforth Plant Science Center greenhouse manager Edward Fischer, a resident of Benton Park West, discusses care of rice plants with Soulardian Sylvia Steiner, a part-time worker at the research facility. Corn, tobacco, soybeans, tomatoes, cassava and other plants are subjects of research. (People Productions photo by Clark Rowley) |
Dorathea remarks that "I was not particularly impressed with the argument that Soulard Market improvements would be detrimental to poor people. Soulard Market is a St. Louis asset. It's for everyone and always has been. To fight a basic improvement program with that gentrification spin was childish."
Market master Sandra concludes that "it just makes me crazy that people would say that the objective of fixing up the market was to drive certain customers away. Everybody enjoys and has a right to a nice place to shop."
The bottom line was that there was no success in brokering a deal so some progress could be made. Nothing was salvaged from the effort.