While I would love top see a central market downtown I'm not sure it would be a
workable, or good idea.
The Lancaster Central Market building covers an area about the size of the
Tompkins County Library, and Reading Terminal Market is about twice that size
(albeit underneath a convention center.) Both are enclosed buildings that
operate year.
Whereas Wegmans can rely on tractor trailers to deliver large quantities of
goods, a central market needs to accommodate many, many small delivery vehicles
to supply the individual vendors that would be housed there. Although they
would likely be arriving before 6:00 AM, introducing large numbers of such
vehicles to downtown Ithaca could be problematic.
The other issue is the customer traffic that would be generated. At any given
time on any Saturday at the Farmers' Market there are as many as 300-350 cars
parked in the parking lot and along the various streets as far back toward
Route 13 as Carpenter Drive. (versus 25-30 parked bikes) A successful central
market would generate that amount of parking demand or more in terms of parking
demand, in a downtown area that is already near or over capacity with regard to
parking.
Because Lancaster is a compactly built, colonial era city, it has a population
density of about 2.5 times that of Ithaca (the city). That puts some
20,000-25,000 residents within a ten minute walk of Central Market and as a
result it generates little in the way of automobile traffic. On the other hand
in Ithaca there is only in the range of 5,000-7,000 residents within a ten
minute walk of downtown and a potential market. (Yes, density, density,
density...)
My sense is that a location close to Route 13 on the Northside, West End or
Southwest areas would work better than a downtown location.
Finally, it should indeed be a publcily owned market. Parking garages after
all can be publicly owned and subsidized, so why not a central market?
This doesn't mean that an outdoor farmer's market should not be pursued for the
Commons, but I personally hesitate at the thought of a permanent structure with
100+ vendors open 3 or more days per week in the downtown area.
George Frantz
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