ADob
Active Member
Whyte Ave/Gateway on art walk weekends and/or fringe weekends. Otherwise it does seem excessive.
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Old Strathcona / Whyte Avenue
- Thread starter Daveography
- Start date
Gronk!
Senior Member
Edmonton Old Strathcona Farmers’ Market lost half of its customers due to paid parking
One of Edmonton’s best-known farmers’ markets, the Old Strathcona Farmers’ Market usually gets around 1,100 visitors on weekends; however, the market saw a huge drop in number when the City of Edmonton started charging for parking in an empty lot beside the market’s building. “I’d like to say...
edmonton.citynews.ca
ADob
Active Member
Honestly I find that weird. There's literally tonnes of free parking, you just have to walk a couple blocks. And, once again, the original outdoor 104 street market had zero free parking and was always busy.Edmonton Old Strathcona Farmers’ Market lost half of its customers due to paid parking
One of Edmonton’s best-known farmers’ markets, the Old Strathcona Farmers’ Market usually gets around 1,100 visitors on weekends; however, the market saw a huge drop in number when the City of Edmonton started charging for parking in an empty lot beside the market’s building. “I’d like to say...
Glenco
Senior Member
I was there last Sunday and it seemed quite busy to me not packed but doing okay.Edmonton Old Strathcona Farmers’ Market lost half of its customers due to paid parking
One of Edmonton’s best-known farmers’ markets, the Old Strathcona Farmers’ Market usually gets around 1,100 visitors on weekends; however, the market saw a huge drop in number when the City of Edmonton started charging for parking in an empty lot beside the market’s building. “I’d like to say...
Kosy123
Senior Member
Incredibly super duper weird. OSFM has been busy on Saturdays always even with the paid parking. All the free parking for a few blocks around is always packed on Saturday mornings, and the paid parking lot too.
I seriously call bullshit on this one ngl.
thommyjo
Senior Member
Yeah. City news should be verifying that claim before posting an article like this. You can’t just say “50% decrease” without proof.
And even if a 50% decreased happened, you can’t prove it’s purely due to the parking. There’s also inflation challenges on household budgets, other market competition, etc.
The parking lot utilization rate would probably help tell some of the story.
ADob
Active Member
Not to mention the extended market days, which would surely affect the number of people on any given day. The article felt very clickbaity and poorly researched. “I’d like to say it’s 50 per cent. Our numbers have declined quite a bit” doesn't have anything solid to back it up.
Airboy
Senior Member
Strathcona Market has some competition now as well with Bountiful open 3 days a week.
IanO
Superstar
My mom has been going for decades and brushed off the paid parking as she (generally) loves the experience. The bigger issue has been her being asked for money and more folks around there early morning that are clearly not there for the market.
But overall, she loves 'an urban' morning out, coffee on Whyte and coming in from the burbs to see what the city is like for a few hours.
She could go to Terwillegar in the summer or Bountiful, but for her it is about a stroll and something more 'city like'.
But overall, she loves 'an urban' morning out, coffee on Whyte and coming in from the burbs to see what the city is like for a few hours.
She could go to Terwillegar in the summer or Bountiful, but for her it is about a stroll and something more 'city like'.
ADob
Active Member
Yeah, it's the whole experience. Coffee, lunch, people watching. As far as panhandlers (is that still a term being used???), that's something that might be good to chat with the market organizers about. I'm absolutely sure they would want to know all relevant reasons people might skip the market and not just bitch about parking.
johnnyboy
Active Member
‘Finding that balance’: Old Strathcona Farmers’ Market looks to address paid parking woes
Organizers of the Old Strathcona Farmers’ Market, an Edmonton southside staple, say shopper rates have noticeably declined since the city introduced a mobile payment system for the most convenient parking spaces.
www.ctvnews.ca
Article then proceeds to quote a vendor who has seen only a 20 per cent drop. Why didn't he provide the vendor names of the "almost 50 per cent reduction" to the press?
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