Monday, April 30, 2007

More on Eastern Market

I've just finished reading some of the comments on the Washington Post site about the Eastern Market fire. The big theme I see is that what mattered wasn't the architecture of the building, which was lovely, but the merchants, the running into neighbors, the relationships formed was the thing that mattered. My concern for the people of Capitol Hill, is that those in charge will get too fixated on the body of the market, the systems, the size of vendor space, etc., and make the soul a second thought.
Another theme I noticed was a concern for the merchants, a by product of those relationships formed between patron and shopkeeper. Realizing while the powers that be figure out what to do, the merchants need support. The Capitol Hill Community Foundation has already set up a fund so that people can contribute.

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1 Comments:

At 5/01/2007 4:19 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

i lived near Eastern Market during the early 80's and shopped at Eastern Market alot. as a matter of fact when carol schwartz ran for city council against jerry moore that's how long ago it was. my point being that one of the eastern market shopkeepers, Melvin, was just a young man starting out in business when i was shopping there and it's sad to hear that such a hardworking man and his employees are currently out of work.

 

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