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The Obamas have been talking about starting up a White House farmers market for a little while now, and today comes word from WTOP that First Lady Michelle Obama has actually put in an application with DDOT for the relevant street closure.
The First Lady's office has put in a request to close Vermont Avenue between H and I Streets NW between 1 p.m. and 8 p.m., every Thursday, for the market. The day of the week and time of the proposed market certainly fits in with what DCist commenters were saying they'd like to see in terms of a White House farmers market, but the proposed location was up until this point unknown. This block of Vermont stretches between the far corners of Lafayette Square and McPherson Square. The WTOP article makes mention of some concern from residents about the potential for further traffic congestion in an already clogged area. We gather the Secret Service would prefer not to set up a weekly market right on Pennsylvania Ave., where the street is already closed to vehicular traffic.
What do you think about the proposed location? DDOT told WTOP that there is no timetable for when the Vermont Ave. closure might be approved or denied.
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Is there a reason not to do it in Lafayette Park where a road wouldn't have to be closed to vehicle traffic? I ask out of ignorance, not snarkiness.
Agreed. Unless there's some major security concern, they should just set the market up in Lafayette Square. It's far away enough from the major traffic arteries so's not to be a major impact, but it's close enough to McPherson to encourage mass transit. Also, the fresh fruit would help ward away the homeless/lunatics that live in the park. It's like garlic and vampires. Something about organic produce scares the poop out of homeless people. Try menacing one with a cucumber or a beet, insist that they address the vegetable and not you, and just watch them scurry away.
Eh, I don't think that stretch is ever really busy.
The thing that gets me is that you'd think they would put it in an area where people...um...actually live and shop.
I can't dis it that much, however. You will have a lot of happy tourists who can take home an official White House cucumber.
Alright then, they should put the market in the middle of Carver Langston or some equally stabby part of town, in a neighborhood where the primary diet items are pork chops, honey buns, and grape blunts. Show them that you can actually have a healthy diet that doesn't include BBQ Rap Snacks and Diet Fanta. Hell, you don't have a single grocery store in Ward 8. Send the First Lady down there with a bag of rutabagas and an armed escort. At the very least, the additional Secret Service presence would guarantee a few fleeting stabbiness-free hours.
The Trinidad roadblocks are unconstitutional, but a farmers market with appropriate background checks by the secret service would not be.
Monkey for mayor! This idea is genius!
I do not believe that I should devote an hour or a day of my time to any personal partisan causes or to any duties other than the awesome duties of this office -- the Resident Troll of DCist. Accordingly, I shall not seek, and I will not accept, the nomination of my party for a term as your Mayor.
But let men everywhere know, however, that a strong and a confident and a vigilant America stands ready tonight to seek an honorable peace; and stands ready tonight to defend an honored cause, whatever the price, whatever the burden, whatever the sacrifice, whatever the hell it was I was talking about.
Thank you for listening. Good night and God bless all of you.
there is a market on H Street NE between 6th and 7th
My guess is that it has to be on a road because most farmers pull their trucks/vans right up into the market and set their stall up next to/behind their vehicle. To do it in the park would mean that the trucks/vans would have to drive in. I'm guessing this is the same reason that the Secret Service doesn't want the market on the already closed section of Pennsylvania Ave. (A whole bunch of trucks and vans driving that close to the White House would require some serious and time consuming security checks, by the current standards anyways.)
What? Don't they know what kind of carbon footprint that leaves? I demand that my local produce be schlepped in by llama-train.
Maybe they want to keep Lafayette open for protesters, knowing that if they closed it, protesters would protest the closing.
What do I think about the proposed location? I think it's a bit close to the Penn Quarter farmer's market that also takes place on Thursday afternoons...
I think that it's great idea. However I doubt that the Farmfresh folks that have a market in Penn Quarter on Thursdays will be happy.
Yeah, this is pretty much the death of the current Thursday incarnation of the Penn Quarter Farmer's Market. A farmer can't be in two places at once, and given the choice, they will all prefer the prestige of being in the White House Farmer's Market. Plus, you have to figure that every junior White House staffer is on orders to go buy stuff, so you have a locked-in customer base.
I hear that they tainted the corn with a mind control drug so you will become a FASCIST/SOCIALIST/COMMUNIST AND WORSHIP NOBAMA....DON'T TRED ON MY GRILL!!!! I will do more research and alert GB, RL and SH.
THE TREE OF LIBERTY IS THIRSTY!
I work in the Farragut area and would walk to this location (especially if they have baked goods, samosas and other prepared foods that I can just have for lunch). I would not schlep down to Penn Quarter.
In my observations it seems like there is very little traffic on 17th between I and H which would be even closer for the large number of people working in the farragut area.
I'm pretty sure that leg of 17th is actually a one-block section of Connecticut Ave., which confuses the heck out of people (including me), but it doesn't have much traffic.
I hope they do this quickly, wherever they do it. I want fresh apples on my lunch break!
you're right, it is Connecticut that I'm thinking of
Left out of this story is the fact that the produce for the market will be coming from collective farms that people will be forced to work on in exchange for receiving socialized medicine. Organic agriculture + national healthcare = islamobamocommunist conspiracy!
This is very interesting. For the first time ever, a first lady of the United States will be selling fruit..to your children..on their school trips. In the near future, the First Lady will be delivering a quote optional farmers market to them for six hours every Thursday. Is this just a "let's all eat some argula and buffalo meat" message or is this indoctrinating your kids to the dietary tastes of Michelle Obama. If there is one ounce of rancid home-made olive oil at this farmers market, you might have to have a problem with that.
I'd walk there during my lunch, I work at 16th & L. I would LOVE to have some fresh veggies for Thursday and Friday dinners, my Saturday market stash tends to run out by then. And I don't normally go to the Penn Quarter one, it would take up too much of my lunch break.
Related: anyone know where I can apply for a Michelle Obama permit? She is one certified organic hot tamale, if you catch my meaning.
I think this is great! I would go after work - though I'm about equi-distant between this one and the Penn Quarter one, and I still haven't gotten to the Penn Quarter one.
...but I would at least INTEND to go to a White House farmer's market...
Regarding the concerns some people have voiced about the proximity of this market to the Thursday FreshFarm market in Penn Qtr...
I work for one of the vendors at the existing FreshFarm market on 8th St (Thursday, 3pm-7pm). It appears that the FreshFarm folks ARE, in fact, organizing the Lafayette Park market, also (even if the First Lady filed the application). So they must not be too concerned about the conflict. And there is plenty of business to go around, no doubt.
How do I know this, you ask? Because the same folks who take the vig off the Penn Qtr market have asked us to be charter vendors at the new one, too. Can't wait.
Glad that MO is promoting local/slow food; I do think she is stepping on the Thursday Penn Quarter Farmer's Market (which is actually quite good for a weekday). I hope she includes them somehow. Why not Monday or Tuesday? Are there any markets then?
Hmm, that's actually a decent location for the market. There they go again, those Obamas, making rational decisions and all. I hate sensible liberals!
As nice as it would have been to put the market smack dab in front of the white house, I'm sure the secret service immediately said no way. It would have been a security nightmare to allow the farmers and their trucks in every week. "Is that a WMD in your pocket, or are your cucumbers both plump and hard?"
That stretch of Vermont is more glorified parking lot than busy road, so it's the perfect street to shut down once a week, while still being close enough to the White House.
I wonder if they'll now allow citizens to throw tomatoes over the fence, if they're official Michelle Obama Fancy Fresh Tomatoes?
And for those complaining about the Obamas squashing the FreshFarm Penn Quarer market, try to actually read the article, which specifies that it's FreshFarm that made the request.
Seems it's not FLOTUS after all - but Nora of Restaurant Nora fame...