Every Tuesday, from 2 to 7 p.m., families and folks of all ages fill Bayard south of Garnet for the Pacific Beach Farmers Market.
\nI love the market \u2013 fresh strawberries and crimini mushrooms from Rodney, delicate salanova lettuce from Anthony and ripe avocados at many booths. You\u2019ll find moms pushing baby strollers, tourists and locals, enjoying acoustic music while munching purchases.
\nIt\u2019s fun, friendly and safe. But “pedestrian safety” is cited by Beautiful PB as a main reason to relocate to Garnet, from Mission Boulevard to Cass, which seems odd. Sometimes, after my husband and I finished our shopping, we\u2019d walk back on the sidewalk. But you can\u2019t do that on Garnet \u2013 too many trip hazards, from illegal A-frame signs to clothes racks \u2013 plus ducking skate-boarders and bicyclists zooming by.
\nWe\u2019re told the move has “100 percent support of the vendors.” My quick survey: Three said yes, three didn\u2019t know about it and five didn\u2019t want it moved, saying they loved the ambiance. “You\u2019ll ruin that feeling if you move it,” said one farmer.
\nRemember, Tuesday is “Taco Tuesday” in PB, when our bars offer drink specials. While the 900 block, from Bayard to Cass, has many new community-friendly shops (not one smoke shop or tattoo parlor!), the 800 block has popular Backyard Kitchen & Tap and a huge hole once occupied by PB Bar & Grill. The new bar will likely have outdoor dining.
\nPicture a warm summer Tuesday, after 5 p.m., when sound rises from the bars. Forget acoustic music. Would you want to sell strawberries over that noise?
\nUnlike other farmers markets, ours is smack in the middle of the high-crime bar district. Other markets don\u2019t have half the county\u2019s 20-somethings headed in to party until 2 a.m. And that changes the picture.
\nReporter Dave Schwab covered Pacific Beach Planning Group\u2019s vote on the issue. Somehow, I didn\u2019t make myself clear. I was quoted as expecting a “permanent block party in those two blocks.” No, I don\u2019t foresee immediate wild activity with a market relocation.
\nHowever, this is step one. The goal of Beautiful PB is to close that area to traffic permanently \u2013 and that\u2019s a major problem. After 1:30 a.m., hundreds of bar-goers converge at the 7-Eleven, Grand Avenue and Mission Boulevard. Why squeeze into a parking lot when two blocks would be available?
\nWe\u2019re told that two of the City\u2019s worst intersections for pedestrian accidents are Cass and Garnet and Mission Boulevard and Garnet. SDPD stats show six accidents in six months \u2013 but four were between 10 p.m. and 12:45 a.m., not market hours.
\nIf Beautiful PB wants to improve pedestrian safety daily, please help remove encroachments from Garnet\u2019s sidewalks via the PROW (Public Right of Way) program. But leave the farmers market on Bayard. Eve Anderson is a long-time member of the Pacific Beach Planning Group and a former columnist for the Beach & Bay Press.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Every Tuesday, from 2 to 7 p.m., families and folks of all ages fill Bayard south of Garnet for the Pacific Beach Farmers Market. I love the market \u2013 fresh strawberries and crimini mushrooms from Rodney, delicate salanova lettuce from Anthony and ripe avocados at many booths. You\u2019ll find moms pushing baby strollers, tourists and […]<\/p>","protected":false},"author":726,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"11561","_seopress_titles_title":"Opinion: Why move the Pacific Beach Farmers Market to Garnet?","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[12360,11552,11561],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-296829","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-duplicate","category-opinion","category-peninsula-beacon"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/296829","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/726"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=296829"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/296829\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=296829"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=296829"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=296829"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}