Save Eastern Market

Unsurprisingly, there are a few news articles today related to last night's town hall meeting, and a few other links of note out there on the great big internet.

• The Post's District Briefing column has a short rundown of the town hall meeting, which includes a comment by Mayor Fenty that once a site for the temporary building is selected, he felt that it could be erected and running in six to eight weeks. The column ends with a promise that the District intends to read every single questionnaire that was filled out last night -- we don't envy the group of interns whose job it will be to decipher all the handwriting and aggregate the comments!
• The Washington Times has a more detailed summary of the meeting, as well; the nugget of gold in this article is that the DC Sports and Entertainment Commission has offered potential use of the DC Armory, next door to RFK Stadium, as a possible temporary site as well. It's something that wasn't raised at all at last night's meeting, though -- and with the fact that even the Eastern Market Metro plaza was nearly universally seen as being too far from the current Market site to be tenable as an interim home to the merchants and vendors, it seems unlikely that the city would think about a site as far away as the Armory.
• Post columnist Marc Fisher has another column up on Eastern Market, highlighting the success of this weekend's Market Day, the outpouring of support for the merchants and vendors, and tonight's Eastern Market Rescue bar and restaurant crawl in support of the CHCF relief fund. In the past week, Fisher has become quite an advocate for the rebuilding process.
• The Express gave a short blurb to the Eastern Market Rescue event tonight, as well; NBC4 also put in a few words to support the effort.
• Finally, the Post has a good article in the Metro section today revealing that the District will pick up the overtime tab for all the city officials who worked the Market Day festival this weekend -- a cost of nearly $5,000 that won't be borne by the Market and Friendship House (the community development and support organization which puts on Market Day every year).

As if we need to remind you: come out to Capitol Hill (or other participating bars and restaurants throughout the District) tonight, and let your food and drink dollars support the rebuilding effort!