Sparks Street controversy [General]

2014 May 30
CBC: Sparks Street food battle brews as market, restaurants collide
bit.ly/SjI17Q

Basically there are vendors selling pre-made food at the BIA-sponsored farmers market. The BIA approved the items for sale. Now restaurants are complaining that these pre-made food items are costing them business and the BIA is telling the vendors to stop selling the items in question as it is "competition."

The BIA is stupid. Wonder if the restaurants object as strongly when the BIA brings in ribfests, poutine fests, etc......

2014 May 30
I wonder which restaurants are complaining? If I pick up food at the market, it's because I never had any intention of sitting down at a restaurant anyway. I know there are a few lunch places on Sparks too, though (Freshii, Bridgehead...).

2014 May 30
Well I for one am outraged that these vendors are stopping me from eating at the horrible restaurants on Sparks Street. It's time we stand up for the purveyors of really crappy food.

2014 May 30
Pep and Nino's has good food, and Yesterday's closed, so things are looking up!

2014 May 30
Ridiculous. It's coming up to summer, that's the best time to get some ready made food and walk along a nice street or sit on a bench and relax and enjoy some food. There is no reason to halt that opportunity.

2014 May 30
Of course a BIA exists solely to increase the spending of money at the businesses it represents, so their reaction is understandable. The entertaining thing here is that they are complaining about something that they unintentionally caused. :-)

When people shop at a farmer's market, they usually want to get their produce home and might pick up a quick bite to eat on the way out. None of that is conducive to increasing business at the BIA-represented vendors. It seems obvious in retrospect, doesn't it? Having a Sparks Street farmers market is not a great BIA move.

Rib Fest and Poutine Fest, on the other hand, involve huge lines of people gorging on rich and salty foods. It's a big social event and the only thing missing is huge pitchers of cold beer. Wait a minute... the BIA-represented vendors have beer. Win, win!

2014 May 30
I've walked through the Sparks market a few times and was struck by the lack of produce and focus on prepped food, but hey, the BIA approved that approach.

The complaints sound a lot like 'waaaahhh, competition'. Next they'll lose their minds about the food carts and trucks within one blocks of Sparks street because more waaaah competition.

2014 Jun 2
I think previous years there were a couple more produce vendors (correct me if I'm wrong, please) but I'm guessing they didn't see it as being worth their while to continue this venture.

I think they've acknowledged that a Farmer's Market doesn't work, since they've subtly rebranded it as "The Market" (or at least, I only noticed it this year).

I didn't think that most of the items sold were a huge issue, since I don't know if I want to eat a jar of honey or a wheel of brie for lunch. I guess the pasties, dumpling and gỏi cuốn are actual meal items.

Anyway, if there's really an issue, maybe in the future they can have the Market run from 1pm-6pm or something. Though I prefer the alternative of Sparks St. restaurants just stepping up. I mean, I work ON Sparks St. and we avoid eating there, walking an extra 15 minutes when eating out.

But yeah, I really want to know who's complaining, 'cos this feels like Farmteam Cookhouse all over again...

2014 Jun 2
In the early 90s the Sparks Street BIA (or whatever incarnation it was at the time) set up a market with food carts similar to the one pictured on the right. Fruit and vegetable vendors were encouraged to apply so people could stop by during their lunch hour or after work to pick up groceries on the way home. Most of the vendors seemed to be the same resellers I saw at the Byward Market and it only lasted one season IIRC. I also seem to remember the biggest sellers were the small pint-sized containers of mixed berries. Some of my colleagues used to pick them up during lunch hour to have as a dessert or afternoon snack. It doesn't surprise me that the present version's most popular items are prepared food.

When I worked on Sparks I did go to the Sparks Street market occasionally but still did most of my shopping at the Byward Market. Most of the time I needed much more than what was available on Sparks and would have made a second trip to the Byward Market anyway so it was just a whole lot easier for me to make one trip to the Byward Market and get everything in one shot.

I also found that a number of my colleagues weren't familiar with Art-Is-In bread, Just Farms produce, or Ottawa Valley honey and didn't see how they could justify buying something they could buy for much cheaper at the grocery store. I remember one colleague telling me last year that she thought the Art-Is-In bread was way overpriced and was convinced they would go out of business by the end of the year because their bread was too expensive. That's when I jumped in and told her that the bakery has actually been around for a number of years, business was doing quite well, and they were focussing selling their products at the farmers markets. (My colleague does most of her grocery shopping at No Frills and is not interested in visiting the farmers markets so she would not be familiar with many of these products.) As much as I love Art-Is-In bread etc. I'm not sure if there is enough business to keep the market open over the long term due to lack of demand for the products or the limited variety available.

Now if more Byward Market businesses would stay open until 8:00 on Thursdays that would be a whole different story...

2014 Jun 2
Toronto has a successful farmers' market on Thursdays in the Summer at the City Hall square... the focus is on produce (at least last time i was there it was) and it's usually packed. I've been told that now the food trucks park nearby so it's win/win for people who want to do some produce shopping and grab a lunch and sit outside.

Why Ottawa can't make this happen... dunno... the initial buy-in for the Sparks st market was mainly from vendors of things other than produce, which was probably the BIA's first and second mistake... now it appears to be in damage control mode.


2014 Jun 6
Art Is In Bakery tweeted that they would be at the Sparks Street Market this week for the last time.

Hot Potato Company will not be there, but posted the following entertaining write up: www.facebook.com

What a fiasco.

2014 Jun 6
One of the follow-up comments to the Hot Potato Company's story is pretty telling of the bad attitude and tactics of someone / some business on Sparks Street:

"Today was horrible:( They pulled all market signs down, made only two spots available for vendors to park ( or they would be ticketed) and wasted the health departments time by reporting us all! The poor inspector looked totally lost!... What a waste of his time... All to try and get rid of us! Well they diid it! - Sure they can all sigh a big sigh of relief now things can return to normal on Sparks... Nice and quite... Just as they like it?!"

2014 Jun 6
Could someone help me understand exactly what authority the BIA has on Sparks Street and why, in the first CBC article, the vendors had to "reach an agreement with Sparks Street Mall"? Is "Sparks Street Mall" an actual authority of some sort? Is it not up to the City or NCC whether vendors are allowed on the street?

The post AD_2 pasted above further confuses matters. Did they leave because they couldn't park (again, by whose authority?) and because the health inspectors were called?

Just trying to understand exactly why the vendors can't flip the bird to the horrible businesses on Sparks Street and stay, eventually putting the useless buggers out of business.

2014 Jun 6
It sounds like the "they" in the comments I quoted refers to the BIA, if that helps you Brian Mc

2014 Jun 6
Isn't Sparks St part of the NCC?

2014 Jun 6
Sparks Street is part of Ottawa. I believe the city is responsible for issuing permits and the like. The BIA is there mostly to promote the businesses and organize events to draw crowds to the area. It looks like whatever happened to the Hot Potato Company is bullying tactics on behalf of the businesses . I don't see how they think a food truck is going to put them out of business and calling the health department to inspect all of them is stooping pretty low. I live downtown and never go to Sparks except the period of my life when I worked there. Public Works seems to have taken over most of whatever retail space there was and there is nothing left to draw me there except the ribfest.

2014 Jun 6
"...nothing left to draw me there except the ribfest..."

That's probably next on the hit list.

2014 Jun 6
Here's a story on the last stall standing: www.cbc.ca

2014 Jun 6
Okay - I'm feeling the need to be opinionated and rant today ...

I just read the story posted on the hot potato company's facebook page.

Have to say that the restaurants really offer a completely different product. Besides the fact that most are good primarily for drinking,they sell okay food at restaurant prices. They must have been afraid that good street food would really make them look bad in comparison.

Catch 22 because Sparks Street has mostly always been a dull quiet lost opportunity. If they want to actully change this then they have to accept change and more business and perhaps competition.

Too bad they don't see things like the sports stores to in Westboro as an opportunity to creat a niche.

Status quo tired (and true?) wins for today.

Wonder how this will impact other efforts to introduce weekend events such as beer fest, etc.? If I was a vendor, I don't know if I would be bothered to get involved with them!

2014 Jun 6
I always thought is was the Sparks St BIA but when I went to look it up I found out that there is something now called Sparks Street Village. Funny enough, both are or were run by one Les Gagne.

2014 Jun 6
I seem to remember hearing somewhere that BIA's receive $$$ from the city. I seem to remember this in relation to West Wellington starting up a BIA not that long ago. The rational is that businesses pay taxes so the city puts a small portion of tax $$$ toward supporting a BIA organization ($$$ to hire a Executive Director, etc.)"

2014 Jun 9
Y'know... there's an opportunity here for someone who owns a chunk of land downtown within a block or two of Sparks street... if, by example, that empty lot on Bank st with the condo signs (the one that had the trailerpark beer garden a few years ago), were to open up for carts and trucks...