Look east Brandon, look east

Don't try to reinvent the wheel on public markets

It appears the Johnson Administration is hellbent on repeating the same mistake most of its predecessors are guilty of-believing Chicago doesn’t need to look beyond its borders for great ideas-even when what Chicago wants is working terrifically elsewhere. The latest instance is Mayor Brandon Johnson et al are looking to bring a public market to the city. This is in lieu of the much ballyhooed, yet harebrained idea the mayor introduced approximately 18 months ago for the City to open a municipally operated grocery store. Supposedly it was going to address the food desert issue on the West Side and South Side; however, no location for the store was ever revealed.

According to preliminary reports this public market project would involve a year-round site, selling staple grocery items, such as milk and bread. City officials noted the market would also contain retail spaces for local farmers and food retailers to sell their products. The city would offer the retail space at below market rates.

If this administration is serious about such an entity, the principals involved would leave their city hall offices and hop into a van and head east on I-94 to Detroit. There they would find one of the nation’s most successful, oldest, and busiest public markets.

Detroit's Eastern Market over the centuries has evolved from a handful of sheds selling hay and wood to a catalyst for cultural and small businesses.

Eastern Market is 43 acres and much more of what Chicago is trying to achieve.

Besides the food staples Chicago officials will find the Eastern Market has been a breeding ground for small restaurants, coffee shops and performing spaces in the adjacent neighborhood. Chicago officials also could gain knowledge on how to transform what would start as a government-owned entity to a public-private partnership, as the Eastern Market has become.

Chicago has a plethora of sites that could accommodate the type of development the Johnson Administration is touting; however, the best may be the location that is mentioned repeatedly nearly every time there is talk of a major development-that would be the former Michael Reese Hospital site in the 2900 block of Ellis in Bronzeville. That location is just an acre smaller than the Eastern Market and offers the possibility for expansion should the Chicago project come to fruition and grow. The proximity to the lakefront is another inducement to use the site.

Chicago officials also could benefit from a trip to Detroit as they could talk with the Eastern Market group about how they are able to attract residents, area farmers, as well as visitors from other states. If Chicago planners of the market here would abandon the traditional ‘we know everything’ attitude that has crippled other projects here; a Chicago public market could become a unique year-round attraction for locals as well as visitors from neighboring states.