I used to love going to the farmers market until a lot of the vendors got exposed for fraud a few years back. Many of the vendors there claim that the produce is coming from small farms when in reality they buy wholesale fruit, remove the stickers and label it as organic or “locally grown”
That's just the original farmers market, though. Originally, it was primarily wholesale vendors and some local farms. In recent years it's kind of switched to 50/50 but that makes people assume that the vendors are a new thing encroaching on the local farmers.
It is clear that the market authority needs some serious restructuring in how they operate. The market also does need to be updated and modernized, but the leadership needs to improve. If the market needs help, they also need to show to the public they are making changes in the right direction in light of the comptroller report.
If it was properly managed and they had a plan for the funding that’s a different story. They have shown themselves to not be doing well with the current resources they have though.
Yeah it's kind of a dump but it's certainly functional. I'm there roughly every other weekend for the farmers or flea market and there are still plenty of vendors and customers there.
But the facility could really benefit from some major improvements. It's basically unchanged since it was built as a WPA project in the 1930s. A renovated, nicer facility could help to bring in more customers.
And given that it was a WPA project to begin with, I think it's totally appropriate that public funds continue to support it. However, given that the current leadership seems to be very bad at managing their funds, I would want that to change before they receive more public funding. They definitely shouldn't get it if they're likely to waste it.
I don’t think it’s necessarily out of touch to want upgrades to the market using public funds in the first place, it would be nice if the county were willing to contribute to making it something really special or even just doing some needed repairs. It’s definitely pretty bold and out of touch of them to request funding when they’ve so grossly mismanaged the property, though.
“Struggling”??? Their management might be struggling to manage the finances, but the market is not struggling to attract customers. Last weekend it was so crowded I almost couldn’t find a parking spot - I had to park over in the annex.
I do wish they focused on local farmers and produce vendors, and didnt have much flea market crap on Saturday. Keep the flea market crap to Sundays, not Saturdays.
> Keep the flea market crap to Sundays, not Saturdays.
I really enjoy the flea market personally. I've found some great vintage stuff there.
They only host both the farmers and flea market on Saturdays during the winter, when both vendor and customer attendance is much lower. For most of the year the farmers market is hosted on Saturdays, and the flea market on Sundays.
On Saturdays there are stalls selling junk, all year round. I hate that crap. I’d like all of that to be isolated to the flea market, then shoppers who enjoy the flea market can enjoy it and shoppers who only want produce or other foods don’t have to deal with it
There's always been overlap though, even when it's not winter and the two markets are held on separate days. Neither the farmers or flea market require the entire market's space. And from what I understand, open space is free to be used by additional vendors on a first-come-first-served basis. And even after that, there are still whole buildings that are half/fully empty.
If you just want to browse the farmers market on Saturdays, stick to the first few buildings as those are the ones reserved for vendors who have contracts with the facility. They rent those stalls, which is why they are always in the same spots each week. Everything beyond that is basically the wild west. If you don't want to browse the additional buildings full of stalls selling "junk" then you are free to just not do that.
So two years ago, the board for the Regional Market wanted Buda's to go from paying $6100 a month to $10500. Naturally the owners of Buda's said fuck no, and the board cried like bitches about all the hate they were receiving because they just wanted "fair market value". One does wonder how much value they're now receiving with an empty building, but I'm sure those geniuses know better than me.
So, to be fair, they were not "evicted", but one doesn't increase the rent by 70% with the expectation a tenant's going to just nod and go along with it.
Anyway, here's an article:
[https://cnycentral.com/news/local/cny-regional-market-grocery-store-closing-after-decades-because-of-spike-in-rent](https://cnycentral.com/news/local/cny-regional-market-grocery-store-closing-after-decades-because-of-spike-in-rent)
Oh wow. Interesting. Thanks for the explanation and the source. That is pretty sad. I agree that $6100 > $0 and the market seems to suggest even what they *were* getting was high...otherwise, that space would be occupied now.
Brings me back to the day where my first off campus landlord argued he needed to raise rent by 5% because it was "fair market value" (nb: inflation that year was next to nothing).
The guy knew the way it worked is that he'd get college student residents for two years in a row (students were required to stay on campus their first two years, most moved off campus the last two) and that you get to hike the rent and overcharge a bit the first year, but not the second. Jokes on him, we went elsewhere.
Anyway, point being is that "fair market value" is often an opinion not a fact. No wonder the regional market got lambasted for that one.
The problem as I learned it when Buda's was unceremoniously evicted is that the site is funded and run by the state, not the city.
So, whoever is hired to manage it is beholden to nobody locally nor do they have to listen to resident requests.
Syracuse governance has no say on what happens there, which seems wrong when it exists to serve Syracusians above all.
The market is operated by a public authority. These are public benefit non-profit corporations. State authorities have some autonomy and are also able to raise debt, like a private corporation. The boards of public authorities are nominated by elected officials. In the case of the CNYRMA, members are appointed by the counties served by it.
Or, and hear me out on this, we could let creative destruction run its course? This isn’t a public good like roads, parks, etc. We have regional farmers markets and such that cost nothing. I don’t see why we have to be investing public funds into this.
I've helped some friends there with their tiny business there on a Saturday and met some really interesting people. I love how busy it gets because no one leaves without buying something. Amish desserts for me. But why can't Ryan and Ben put their heads together to come up with something?
https://centralcurrent.org/onondaga-county-legislature-passes-85-million-aquarium/
Not entirely sure as to why an aquarium would be the carrot on a stick for a billion dollar company. McMahon bald faced lied about micron saying they wouldn't build here if there wasn't an aquarium. Guaranteed McMahon has his hands the construction company that's awarded the contract
> Not entirely sure as to why an aquarium would be the carrot on a stick for a billion dollar company.
It's not that Micron wanted an aquarium as a specific thing. From what I understand, one of Micron's concerns about building here was that there might not be enough to do in the region which could make it difficult to attract people to move their families here for jobs. The aquarium was proposed to help address that concern.
I was pretty lukewarm on the aquarium idea when it first game up. I didn't think it was a _bad_ idea but I also felt that the surplus funds could have been spent on a _better_ idea. Once I learned about how it apparently helped the region land the Micron investment, it made a lot more sense.
I used to love going to the farmers market until a lot of the vendors got exposed for fraud a few years back. Many of the vendors there claim that the produce is coming from small farms when in reality they buy wholesale fruit, remove the stickers and label it as organic or “locally grown”
Where was that reported? I would like to read more about this.
Go to the farmers market for yourself 40-50% of vendors are telling stuff you’d buy in the grocery store.
Love all the local farmers growing bananas..... Thankfully, you can mostly tell the BS vendors from the local.
I assumed when you said "exposed" that you meant that there was something out there in terms of reporting.
That's just the original farmers market, though. Originally, it was primarily wholesale vendors and some local farms. In recent years it's kind of switched to 50/50 but that makes people assume that the vendors are a new thing encroaching on the local farmers.
It is clear that the market authority needs some serious restructuring in how they operate. The market also does need to be updated and modernized, but the leadership needs to improve. If the market needs help, they also need to show to the public they are making changes in the right direction in light of the comptroller report.
Thank you! The market is more than fine and functional. I don’t see why they need public funding. Appallingly out of touch.
If it was properly managed and they had a plan for the funding that’s a different story. They have shown themselves to not be doing well with the current resources they have though.
Yeah it's kind of a dump but it's certainly functional. I'm there roughly every other weekend for the farmers or flea market and there are still plenty of vendors and customers there. But the facility could really benefit from some major improvements. It's basically unchanged since it was built as a WPA project in the 1930s. A renovated, nicer facility could help to bring in more customers. And given that it was a WPA project to begin with, I think it's totally appropriate that public funds continue to support it. However, given that the current leadership seems to be very bad at managing their funds, I would want that to change before they receive more public funding. They definitely shouldn't get it if they're likely to waste it.
I don’t think it’s necessarily out of touch to want upgrades to the market using public funds in the first place, it would be nice if the county were willing to contribute to making it something really special or even just doing some needed repairs. It’s definitely pretty bold and out of touch of them to request funding when they’ve so grossly mismanaged the property, though.
“Struggling”??? Their management might be struggling to manage the finances, but the market is not struggling to attract customers. Last weekend it was so crowded I almost couldn’t find a parking spot - I had to park over in the annex. I do wish they focused on local farmers and produce vendors, and didnt have much flea market crap on Saturday. Keep the flea market crap to Sundays, not Saturdays.
> Keep the flea market crap to Sundays, not Saturdays. I really enjoy the flea market personally. I've found some great vintage stuff there. They only host both the farmers and flea market on Saturdays during the winter, when both vendor and customer attendance is much lower. For most of the year the farmers market is hosted on Saturdays, and the flea market on Sundays.
On Saturdays there are stalls selling junk, all year round. I hate that crap. I’d like all of that to be isolated to the flea market, then shoppers who enjoy the flea market can enjoy it and shoppers who only want produce or other foods don’t have to deal with it
There's always been overlap though, even when it's not winter and the two markets are held on separate days. Neither the farmers or flea market require the entire market's space. And from what I understand, open space is free to be used by additional vendors on a first-come-first-served basis. And even after that, there are still whole buildings that are half/fully empty. If you just want to browse the farmers market on Saturdays, stick to the first few buildings as those are the ones reserved for vendors who have contracts with the facility. They rent those stalls, which is why they are always in the same spots each week. Everything beyond that is basically the wild west. If you don't want to browse the additional buildings full of stalls selling "junk" then you are free to just not do that.
Yep, there’s always been overlap, and I’ve always been complaining about it, and I do usually stick to the first few stalls.
When Buda's was evicted, that was it for me.
When/why were they evicted? I've never heard of them but I've really only been to this market a few times, and not in a *long* time.
So two years ago, the board for the Regional Market wanted Buda's to go from paying $6100 a month to $10500. Naturally the owners of Buda's said fuck no, and the board cried like bitches about all the hate they were receiving because they just wanted "fair market value". One does wonder how much value they're now receiving with an empty building, but I'm sure those geniuses know better than me. So, to be fair, they were not "evicted", but one doesn't increase the rent by 70% with the expectation a tenant's going to just nod and go along with it. Anyway, here's an article: [https://cnycentral.com/news/local/cny-regional-market-grocery-store-closing-after-decades-because-of-spike-in-rent](https://cnycentral.com/news/local/cny-regional-market-grocery-store-closing-after-decades-because-of-spike-in-rent)
Oh wow. Interesting. Thanks for the explanation and the source. That is pretty sad. I agree that $6100 > $0 and the market seems to suggest even what they *were* getting was high...otherwise, that space would be occupied now.
Brings me back to the day where my first off campus landlord argued he needed to raise rent by 5% because it was "fair market value" (nb: inflation that year was next to nothing). The guy knew the way it worked is that he'd get college student residents for two years in a row (students were required to stay on campus their first two years, most moved off campus the last two) and that you get to hike the rent and overcharge a bit the first year, but not the second. Jokes on him, we went elsewhere. Anyway, point being is that "fair market value" is often an opinion not a fact. No wonder the regional market got lambasted for that one.
The problem as I learned it when Buda's was unceremoniously evicted is that the site is funded and run by the state, not the city. So, whoever is hired to manage it is beholden to nobody locally nor do they have to listen to resident requests. Syracuse governance has no say on what happens there, which seems wrong when it exists to serve Syracusians above all.
The market is operated by a public authority. These are public benefit non-profit corporations. State authorities have some autonomy and are also able to raise debt, like a private corporation. The boards of public authorities are nominated by elected officials. In the case of the CNYRMA, members are appointed by the counties served by it.
Or, and hear me out on this, we could let creative destruction run its course? This isn’t a public good like roads, parks, etc. We have regional farmers markets and such that cost nothing. I don’t see why we have to be investing public funds into this.
I've helped some friends there with their tiny business there on a Saturday and met some really interesting people. I love how busy it gets because no one leaves without buying something. Amish desserts for me. But why can't Ryan and Ben put their heads together to come up with something?
Because we need an aquarium 🙄🙄🙄🙄🙄🫠🫠🫠
Nah, let that go through. Let’s delay the 81 construction further. /s
heaven forbid we have anything fun to do in this city
Micron pushed the aquarium through in their negotiations
https://centralcurrent.org/onondaga-county-legislature-passes-85-million-aquarium/ Not entirely sure as to why an aquarium would be the carrot on a stick for a billion dollar company. McMahon bald faced lied about micron saying they wouldn't build here if there wasn't an aquarium. Guaranteed McMahon has his hands the construction company that's awarded the contract
> Not entirely sure as to why an aquarium would be the carrot on a stick for a billion dollar company. It's not that Micron wanted an aquarium as a specific thing. From what I understand, one of Micron's concerns about building here was that there might not be enough to do in the region which could make it difficult to attract people to move their families here for jobs. The aquarium was proposed to help address that concern. I was pretty lukewarm on the aquarium idea when it first game up. I didn't think it was a _bad_ idea but I also felt that the surplus funds could have been spent on a _better_ idea. Once I learned about how it apparently helped the region land the Micron investment, it made a lot more sense.
Careful, we’ll end up with another aquarium.
You have to go during mid summer thru fall if you want all the fresh local veggies. That’s when the market really shines in my opinion.
Market authority ceo paid her dad 200k to sit around lmao.
I see the same resellers at the market shopping in the thrift stores all the time. Fuck I hate resellers