Markets may open locally

A new farmers’ market is on its way to Brentwood while
plans are in the works to bring a market back to Westwood Village,
two months after the departure of the Westwood Village
Farmers’ Market.

The development of the Westwood Farmers’ Market was
announced in a press release Wednesday, stating plans to open the
new market at the Vets’ Garden on the Veterans Administration
grounds in Brentwood. Also, plans are being formulated to
reestablish a Village farmers’ market on Broxton Avenue. The
two markets are unrelated.

The market, which would technically be in Brentwood, is
scheduled to open sometime this June or July and would operate each
Thursday from 1 to 7 p.m., according to the statement.

The announcement comes about two months after the closure of the
Westwood Village Farmers’ Market, which operated for 12 years
at the corner of Westwood Boulevard and Weyburn Avenue.

The Los Angeles Fire Department determined the Village market to
be unsafe during the continuing construction of Palazzo Westwood, a
mixed-use complex with apartments and retail spaces developed by
Casden Properties.

Merle Fishman, the director of the Vets’ Garden, said
final negotiations regarding the market will be made in a meeting
today, but could not comment further on the details of the
negotiations.

Similar to the former Village market, which was closed by Los
Angeles Fire Department officials March 30 amid protest from
supporters, the new market will host farmers, live music, and other
vendors and activities.

Westwood Farmers’ Market representatives were unreachable
for comment Thursday regarding more specific information concerning
the market.

Though this new market will provide a new option for locals from
both UCLA or surrounding communities, there are still efforts to
develop a market within the Village.

Jessica Dabney, a former member of the Farmers’ Market
Educational Foundation, which provided funding and oversight for
the former market, said she is looking into working with the
community to develop a new market within the Village, unrelated to
the Vets’ Garden market.

So far not much progress has been made with regard to this
project, she said, but a market in the Village is something she
feels is important to Westwood.

“It provides a service and sort of is a community base for
a lot of diverse groups in Westwood Village,” she said.

She said she has spoken with merchants in the Village, UCLA
students and local property owners, and many seem enthusiastic
about the idea.

An organization called Friends of the Westwood Farmers’
Market is also looking into the reestablishment of a
Village-centered market.

Founder Yuting Wong, who works in the Health Services Research
Center at UCLA, said an application to develop a new market on
Broxton Avenue has been obtained, and the organization is currently
looking to gain approval for the market from Broxton Avenue
merchants and property owners.

She said 70 percent of Broxton Avenue merchants must support the
street closure in order to establish the market on that street.

“So far, it’s looking okay,” she said.

At a meeting last Tuesday, 18 store owners and managers
discussed the possibility of a Broxton market with Friends
representatives, and 16 were positive about the proposal, Wong
said.

She said they will be looking to collect signatures from
businesses as soon as possible.

“I’m very confident,” she said.

The group is hoping to operate the market on Thursdays, similar
to the previous market, but Wong said they are willing to negotiate
the times with businesses.

Though competition might seem imminent with two markets
operating on the same day, Wong said they would be far enough apart
to make the foot traffic different.

“People love farmers’ markets, so there probably
would be enough interest in both of them,” she said.

She said students would probably not go to the Vets’
Garden market if a Village market was also available.

Fourth-year anthropology student Megan Carney, director of the
Student Gardening Program at UCLA, said she believed the new
Vets’ Garden market is “very merited,” but what
makes a farmers’ market successful is its integration into a
community space.

Weyburn Avenue was already a place people went and was a
familiar community space, she said, whereas it seems the
Vets’ Garden is not frequented as much by community members
or students.

She said she felt students might rather travel by bus to Venice
to attend a market in a familiar or community area than attend a
market in an unfamiliar space.

However, she recognized the difficulty of securing locations
within urban areas ““ such as within the Village ““ which
in turn makes it hard to develop markets in these community
spaces.