Welcome back after the Memorial Day weekend holiday; we took a little time off here (as you can tell!), mostly to catch up on our work and personal lives. There's been scant coverage of the Market in the news as of late (probably because we're now in the phase where we're waiting for the temporary building to open and for the inspections and repair plans for the South Hall to be completed), so we felt it'd be OK to take a short respite!
The Washington Business Journal had a piece at the end of last week entitled “Opening set for interim Eastern Market site,” but the article conspicuously lacks anything more detailed than that the temporary building will be finished sometime in July. We've heard rumors that the city wants to try to celebrate the official opening of the building during the July 4th holiday, but haven't gotten confirmation of that.
Tomorrow's issue of The Hill devotes a few paragraphs (see the bottom of the article) to the rent raises for the Saturday Market Festival arts and crafts vendors, an issue that was discussed in some detail at last week's EMCAC meeting. Needless to say, it's amazing to us that John Harrod, the leaseholder for the North Hall, is simultaneously trying to collect increased rent from the vendors while justifying his own nonpayment of rent to the city for over four months -- it's yet another small glimpse of how difficult Market-related issues can be.
Care Company is holding Mark-It for the Market, a community yard sale, this coming Saturday, June 2nd from 9 AM to 1 PM, at the corner of Eighth Street SE and North Carolina (just north of the Market). They're accepting donated items to sell, which can be dropped off at Christ Our Shepherd Church (801 N. Carolina Ave SE) during business hours this week (and until 8 PM on Friday evening, as well); if you're interested in helping out, you can email carefordc@yahoo.com. All proceeds will go to the CHCF relief fund!
Remember Isabella, the motivated seven year-old who broke her piggy bank open and donated the money to the Market merchants? We got a note from her mother today that leaves us in awe -- Isabella successfully organized a lemonade stand and bake sale fundraiser last weekend that netted another $600 for the merchant relief fund! I'd keep my eye on that young Hill resident -- she's going to go places.
One reminder: this weekend, the Capitol Hill Chorale will be donating half the proceeds from their two concerts to the CHCF fund. The concerts are on June 2nd at 8 PM and on June 3rd at 4 PM, both will be held at the Capitol Hill Presbyterian Church (at 4th Street SE and Independence Avenue), and tickets cost $20 for general seating ($25 for preferred seating, and children under 12 are free).
Finally, we got a suggestion a few days ago asking if we'd thought about putting together a page with information about where each of the displaced merchants has set up temporary shop, a suggestion that's all kinds of awesome. We'll try to get good, verified information up on the site within the next day or two!