Free Speech Curtailed in Davis

The market shed is largely empty of vendor on Wednesday— this photo is 4/22. But the city has allow market manager the power to force community group to be table as far as possible from other farm even outside the shed in the Sun or rain. There are 2 community groups tabling behind the photographer in this photo.

 Farmers Market Discourages Community Engagement

By Alan “Lorax” Hirsch

(Alan passes out “love your neighbor” signs in the farmer’s market.)

Just when you thought our political rights could not be more threatened, this Trumpian zeitgeist seems to have come to Davis.

They are dramatically reducing visibility of community/free speech area at the Saturday farmer market by expelling these groups from their traditional tabling area along C street north of the restrooms. They will be displaced 1 block south and 2/3 of a block west to an unpaved part of Central Park.  They will be isolated from commercial vendors currently set on sidewalk next to C Street- community & political groups will be in an unpaved grass area close to B street.  An area that is unshaded and hot, so visitors won’t want to linger. This area is invisible to shoppers on C street as it will be hidden behind vendor’s trucks, banners and awnings. The Net: these Group’s tables won’t get any casual foot traffic.

The now lively Saturday market community area may go the way of the Wednesday free speech/community tablers. DFMA Market management decided to displace Wednesday tablers from under the awning to a similarly isolated, sunny & hot area far away from the half-empty market shed.  These tablers got no foot traffic in that location – and the sun stressed the volunteers – so now there is little or no community tabling on Wednesdays.

One of the alleged reason for moving community group/ free speech areas 1 1/2 block to the shadeless B street side of the park is there is not enough room in current area. Here is one of the three bike racks recently installed by city that takes up shaded space that could be available for community group tabling.

Dropping the Bomb

This relocation was a surprise move—like “dropping a bomb” one leader from a local children-program called it. Most groups were given only 54 hours to accommodate the new Saturday arrangement. I have talked to no group that has been consulted, in advance. This is all consistent with the disrespect of community groups evidenced in other aspects of this situation.

The decision was likely made solely by Randii McNeary, the manager of Davis Farmer Market Alliance, Inc (DFMA) without input from her board. But it could have been vetoed by the city that controls the park.  However, acting city manager Kelly Stachowicz  seems unconcern with the change.  Though the unsigned directive from the DFMA, Inc sounded final, the Stachowicz response was “let’s give it a try”.  The city contracts with DFMA Inc to run the market. The DFMA pays the city $1 year, and its farmers and vendors get to enjoy probably $5 million/year or more in revenue per year. – They pay no sales or property taxes to support the city out of this considerable revenue stream —unlike the bricks and mortar stores and restaurants with which they compete in Davis.

It used to though the community group area was one of the ways they gave back- but clearly no longer.

At stake for the community in this decision it not money – but values– as the city ultimately controls Park and the land and shed the Farmer Market effectively uses for free. -The question: Is the market only about selling local fruit and vegetables and everything else is a distraction. Or is it also about enabling connections with between residents in the community. It used to be 30 years ago when McNeary started you needed a farmers market to get local organic produce, but it is no longer unique– even discount groceries in Davis have organic.

What makes the Davis Market special?

Many people note the free speech/community space in the market is what make our Davis market unique vs the now 50+ other “farmers markets” that are now pervasive in Northern California.

But the Davis market’s management seems to have missed this and now wants to hide this feature across the park from the commercial area, unseen behind the vendor trucks.  And discourage visitors from discovering this area by putting it in an unshaded part of the park, one that is grassy and unpaved, so families with kids in strollers or wagons won’t go over, nor people with shopping carts or wheelchairs. Reduce visitors to groups table, less incentive for volunteers to table, fewer tables, less diversity for shoppers to discover, reduce visitors.   A death spiral for our precious and unique community group area.

Showing off Davis Diversity

I suggest the diversity in the Saturday market in this part of the market is what makes a trip here special vs a grocery store or another city’s farmers market. This is space where ExplorIt, International House, Oddfellows meet with public to advertise their programs. Where people have picked up over 3000 “Love your Neighbor” and “Support Science” lawn signs. The place where political candidates meet with the public in election season. Where advocacy groups like Aggies for Israel share their concerns about antisemitism and the hostages. Or a booth that silently listed all the deaths in Gaza in some cloth hangings—without comment. – Where Democratic Socialist share space the more mainstream Invisible Yolo and sometime even the Yolo County GOP. They all practice coexistence. Muslims from the Mosque and the Jehovah Witness, and often other churches offering conversations, comfort or even a debate about God and ultimate meaning with as passers-by if they so choose. 

If you are lonely this is a place where you can engage with one or many of over 30 community volunteers who show up on a given Saturday.

This what is at stake: the loss of the one time and place in Davis where we live the value of diversity and mutual tolerance. And meet those outside our social silos.  Pretty precious.

But it seems community leaders have decided they value having room for a few more food trucks over community connectivity.  Have they thought about the fact they are pushing Davis residents back into social media?  Will Davis really be a better place to live if find space to go from 20 to 30 food trucks in the market on Saturday?

There is a questionable claim that commercial vendors need more space in market so community groups need to be relocated. However there have been at least 4- and often as many as 16 empty commercial vendor spot in the Market each week this year. (see this picture and the one above it)

Alleged Reason for the Change.

This change was announced to most groups by email just 54 hours before they needed to put in a request for one of the spots in the new unshaded grass location. The decision for this change was made with no community input. It was a total surprise this change was in the offing- no flyer requesting input, no hearing before the Rec and Parks Commission that the city could have insisted on. The Market manager Randii McNeary seems to have decided and the Acting City Manager Stachowicz simply rubber stamped it.

Their stated “reasons” for the urgent relocation don’t make sense if you take a critical eye to market- and how it has developed over the 8 years I have tabled there.

• “Reason” 1: Make the market more ‘family friendly” This is news to Explorit, Peregrine school, and church groups that return to table every week. I think it is rather insulting. Sounds like someone is offended by the existence of political discussion going on as they walk by.
• “Reason” 2: Commercial vendors more space. A strange “reason” as there have been empty commercial spaces on the market every week this year even without the takeover of the free speech area (I have noticed and photographed empty spots every week). In fact, there is so much extra space some vendors are now assigned double wide spaces vs a few years ago. My weekly vendor census indicates there are no more vendors in the market now than 6 years ago— other than food trucks, which have been given an expanded area behind the Bike Museum.
• “Reason” 3: More space is needed for Community/Free speech groups. There is some crowding- but this is because the city has a) let food trucks area encroach into the original community area already b) the city installed  three bike rack in the area that used for community group tabling c) The city also  installed a fence around the play area in 2014 that constricted the C street sidewalk – this could easily could be fixed. In fact, the footprint of community area actually accommodated more than twice as many tables in the fall 2018 in the lead up to the national and city elections. The real cause of “congestion”, if you think it exists, is so many people stop, talk and engage. And is this seen as a problem? For whom exactly?
• “Reason” 4: Make Free speech area more ADA compliant. This is strange argument as the new community area is unpaved and grassy – hardly wheelchair or stroller friendly- not to mention the new area is unshaded.
• “Reason” 5: In a few months the Natalie Corona Fountain will open. The existing community area is 100 yards from the fountain -separated from it by a wide, fenced play area. How will there be any spill over between these two separated areas- and what is the problem if there IS? Isn’t synergy the point of putting all these attractions in one spot?

DOGE style Management in Davis

It’s time to ask why there is suddenly a crisis who’s fix must be implanted without taking time for community input? -And why were community groups given less than one week’s notice to buy carts to carry their tabling material across the park from parking on C to the B street side- a big change from current location where they can unload directly to the C Street sidewalk?   More overhead for volunteers who do tabling,

To me, this top-down crisis style of planning and implementation sounds like a page out of Elon Musk’s DOGE handbook – just “move fast and break things.”

Not to feed conspiracy theory, but cynics could wonder if this is a Trumpist plan to reduce political speech & community involvement in liberal Davis. More honestly, we can admit authoritarian approaches to problem solving can occur on the left as well as the right.

A New Vision for our Market

The city, through its delegation to DFMA, Inc., seems to have lost sight of what is really going on every Saturday in Central Park. Our market is still special – it’s the main attraction and anchor store in our downtown.  But it is not just (or only) because it is THE place to buy local organic vegetables.

I suggest proposed changes put us in danger of losing what IS special about it. 

We begin by admitting our farmers market is no longer unique as a source of fresh locally sourced fruit and organic vegetables. Yes, it was 30 years ago – but today every Davis grocery has fresh organic, and every town has a farmers’ market. And you can have the charm of meeting local (or not so local) organic farmers at over 50 other outdoor markets in northern California.

The anemic sales at our “vegetables- only” Wednesday market gives a hint, A 1/2 empty market shed, and lower sales is correlated to Community & Political group tables have been effectively banned. You need something special to attract people, otherwise a visit to this place with uncertain parking on Wednesday is just an errand.

What makes a visit to the Saturday farmer market different than a trip to a store (or Wednesday market) is you can engage in human contact and learn what is happening in town. Or even if you don’t want to talk with a community group, you will be more likely to meet a neighbor who came here to do just that- and therefore they will be primed to slow down for a conversation with you. This is unlike the social “rules of engagement” when you meet someone at a store doing an errand. At a grocery store the only person you only lock eyes on are one of the ever-changing faces of retail clerks you exchange two sentences with. At the market you slow down and might take time to engage in 5 or 10 conservations with different people in the community area about things that matter—or not. You rarely get much interaction with the busy farmers selling their goods—its community members who talk to each other.  So why are they trying to evict the catalyst for this interaction into a backwater of the park?

It’s time to ask: why have we as a community decided to delegate management of our town’s main attraction, our downtown’s highly subsidized anchor store-to a Market management so out of synch with community values?  A leadership who fails to appreciate and respect the over 30 Davis residents who volunteer on Saturday as they care about Davis.

Or a business manager blind to the retailing value of attracting new customers via the diverse community groups that goal is engages and even entertains its customer– for free — each Saturday.

I think this crisis is a time to look at all the lost opportunities – stop managing the market as an oversized vegetable stand but instead as a gathering place and event hub for our Davis community.