The Downtown Farmers Market at its new temporary location in the A Lot on North Pine. Photos by Sarah Bennett

Last Friday morning, North Promenade through City Place was open to car traffic for the first time in nearly nine years. Vehicles slowed as they drove down the street usually filled with tents selling tamales, popcorn, incense and fresh vegetables. Their drivers looked around confused, straining for signs of the weekly street fair, a tradition that, unbeknownst to many regular customers, was canceled with no notice on July 12. 

Thankfully, the Downtown Long Beach Farmers Market and Craft Fair wasn’t dead, just pared down and relocated a few blocks away to a North Pine space donated during the hectic week since City Place’s property management company handed a terse cancellation letter to market organizers.

“Of course it’s disappointing that we weren’t given more time, but we’re just trying to move on and look forward,” said Julia Kohn, a volunteer board member with market organizers Harbor Area Farmers Markets. Kohn spent most of the day last Friday walking around City Place passing out nearly 1000 bilingual flyers detailing the new location to inquisitive passerby and perplexed families toting reusable bags.

Meanwhile, Pine Ave. between 6th St. and 7th St. was bustling with foot traffic as residents found the “A Lot” at 641 Pine Ave. filled with the market’s uprooted farmers and food vendors. Despite the notable absence of the separately organized craft fair and many of the popular BBQ and Hispanic food stands, Market Manager Dale Whitney said he was pleased with the turnout and even more pleased that all of his farmers were able to have a space to sell to the community without interruption. 

“We are so grateful to Cultural Alliance Long Beach and Historic Old Pine Ave for stepping up in our time of need,” Whitney said of the lot’s donators. “We’ve been here for 33 years and some people have been coming here the whole time so it would have been a shame to have to go dark.”

But the new location is only a temporary fix for a last-minute problem and Whitney and his team are still looking to secure a more permanent space that can accomodate all of the market’s food vendors and the popular adjoining craft fair. Several councilmembers have expressed support for HAFM in their search and there are a few lots that the group is hopeful it can begin negotiations to use in the coming months. 

“We didn’t have time at all to look at more permanent options last week, but now that we are here for a while, we can focus on finding a bigger and more permanent space somewhere in Downtown,” Whitney said. “We want to find something as big as possible and as soon as possible. And we are fully committed to remaining in Downtown.”

The Downtown Long Beach Farmers Market is held every Friday in its temporary new space at 641 Pine Ave. 

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