There is more than faith at work in the movement to establish a permanent public market in downtown Red Deer.
For 40 years, the Red Deer Public Market (once known as a farmers market) has thrived in Red Deer. The parking lot in front of the Arena has become the place to be on Saturday mornings, from May through the Thanksgiving weekend.
Dennis Moffat’s tireless, good-humoured and professional efforts have ensured that the market offers consumers, and social wanderers, what they are looking for.
It is home to market gardeners, artisans, entrepreneurs, musicians, social campaigners — and even politicians. In many ways, in the warm months, the weekly market has become the heart of the city and thousands of people flock to it week after week to shop, socialize and gawk.
The market is part of how Central Alberta stays in touch with our roots, and part of how we stay in touch with each other.
It has also become an integral part of marketing and sales for a variety businesses and individuals.
Throw into that mix the emergence of the small Downtown Market that operated on Wednesday afternoons on the former site of the Arlington Inn last summer and you have a strong case for a more permanent market in Red Deer. Downtown Business Association executive director Laura Turner calls the Wednesday market a trial that exceeded all expectations.
So when a report on the future of a year-round market — likely in the old bus barns in Riverlands — is unveiled this evening at a public meeting, expect the community support for the proposal to be boundless. (The meeting runs at Gaetz Memorial United Church on Ross Street from 6 to 9 p.m.)
The study reportedly examined successful markets in other communities. And such markets do thrive, on a daily basis in such large communities as Vancouver and on a weekly basis in more modest urban areas like Fredericton, N.B., and Saskatoon. City culture superintendent Kristina Oberg says the key ingredient is for the market “to be community driven.”
The study will be further developed with public input to include recommendations on a permanent market, first made to the Greater Downtown Action Plan steering committee next month, and then to city council early next year.
Several city councillors are firmly on board.
In the run-up to the Oct. 18 municipal election, councillors like Cindy Jefferies and Paul Harris talked enthusiastically about the possibility of a permanent market that would fill a significant cultural niche in the community.
Others have talked in the past about the need to develop the Riverlands area into a vibrant inner city neighbourhood, with shops, high-density housing, entertainment and restaurants. And that is the backbone of the Greater Downtown Action Plan.
A weekly market with a strong arts and crafts component would fit nicely into that recipe, and in fact could become the focal point of future development.
The future of the Riverlands and Railyards areas have drawn a great deal of discussion, and some provocative (and expensive) ideas, from a suggestion to create canals to a proposal to develop transportation-based attractions.
Tourism Red Deer expects a study it commissioned on tourism’s economic impact locally to be completed by the end of the year. It will in all likelihood further fuel the discussion about the need to attract visitors to Red Deer’s downtown with projects large and small.
But at the heart of any plan, nothing could be more fundamental, attractive and simple, than creating a weekly, year-round market.
John Stewart is the Advocate’s managing editor.