West Side Market ’s shortsighted vendors will hurt this city treasure
Plain Dealer, The (Cleveland, OH) - Sunday, September 29, 2013
Readability: 10-12 grade level (Lexile: 1190L)
The vendors at the West Side Market have a bigger problem than the lack of parking.
The real threat to Cleveland’s 100-year-old treasured institution is the vendors’
shortsightedness.
Their insular attitude and actions are on full display in their battle with Cleveland City
Hall over how to best alleviate nearby parking congestion fueled by residential and
commercial growth in the Ohio City neighborhood, particularly along West 25th Street.
The market ’s tenants association — represented by its colorful leader, Vince
Bertonaschi, owner of Vince’s Meats — has rejected every suggestion or proposal short
of the city building a new parking garage for market customers. This is not going to
happen anytime soon.
Bertonaschi went off the deep end this week, threatening to tow cars that park in
the market lot for more than two hours and are driven by people who visit
the market but who don’t buy anything. He refers to them derisively as tourists.
“We are an attraction for tourists on their way to the restaurants,” he told my colleague
Leila Atassi. “They come through, check us out and go have fun. We’re like the football
game, and the restaurants are like the concession stand. It’s great that we’ve got action
here. But what good does it do me if one tourist pulls out and another pulls in? We need
a lot that is just for shoppers.”
The City of Cleveland owns the market and the 312-space parking lot behind it that is
supposed to be exclusively for marketcustomers — for up to two hours. Vendors
collectively pay $6,782 a month to maintain the lot, but they have no authority to tow
cars.
In recent years, the lot has been jammed because cars often remain in spaces for hours
as visitors shop at the market and other places in the neighborhood, which now
includes some 50 businesses and 1,800 new residential units.
The city and Ohio City Inc., the neighborhood nonprofit trying to guide development,
proposed a solution last year that would generate more turnover in the market lot —
ultimately allowing more people to get in and shop at the market .
The original proposal calls for merging the two city-owned lots near the market , adding
ticketing equipment and hiring a professional operator. Market shoppers could get their
tickets validated for 90 minutes of free parking. The proposal would also produce about
145 additional spaces.
Bertonaschi and the vendors continue to reject this plan and discount Ohio City Inc.’s
studies that examined the flow of cars in the parking lot. They insist market customers
need a minimum of two hours because some vendors are restaurants.
But vendors’ real opposition is philosophical. They believe market customers should
never be charged because they are so important to the tradition of the market and the
area. These customers, the argument goes, were there before the patrons of the new
businesses.
This is a completely irrational position that will hurt the market in the long run.
People don’t come to the market for guaranteed free parking. They come for fresh
meats and goods that only Bertonaschi and other vendors offer.
The tenants’ position ignores the fact that paid parking will make it easier for their
customers to find spots while still getting free parking.
The vendors’ attitude, at least articulated through Bertonaschi, also isn’t grounded in the
reality that the city has to address parking for everyone, not just market customers. And
it also ignores a basic economic principle that neighborhood growth can be good for all
businesses.
Bertonaschi says he’s not against growth or change but insists all market vendors are
losing sales because of parking congestion. I don’t buy it. As a former resident of the
area, I kept my cash in my pocket at times because the products offered at
the market — usually produce items — were sometimes less than appealing and some
stands were not open when I needed them.
Bertonaschi’s attitude toward tourists is particularly counterproductive.
These so-called tourists are suburban visitors who were among those that rallied
around the market when it sustained fire damage last year.
Vendors should welcome tourists because they and their children are making a
connection to the market — which makes them future customers.
Bertonaschi doesn’t want to hear it. About welcoming a tourist, he said, “We go broke
waiting for people to figure out if they want to come.”
Behind all of the vendors’ bluster is deep resentment toward City Hall that stems from
their view that the city hasn’t done enough to maintain the building, though sizable
investments have been made dating back to the early 1990s.
Complicating parking negotiations is the fact that the vendors’ lease with the city ends
next year. This is breeding anxiety because the city is taking an aggressive posture to
get more from the vendors. Bertonaschi, who has run his own business since the early
1960s, says city officials don’t know how to run the market .
“I wouldn’t let them run a shoeshine business,” he said.
The vendors are going to lose the parking battle.
The city will take control of the lot if vendors don’t accept the proposal. Bertonaschi told
me the city has threatened as much in a meeting a few months ago.
He’s so mad at the threat that he’s willing to settle the issue with officials in the boxing
ring.
“The minute you act that way, you make me want to fight,” he said. “I might be too old to
have this attitude, but we can go put on the 8 ounce gloves. … Now you make me want
to swing. The minute you threaten me I get goofy.”
This spirit is certainly part of the appeal of the market .
But it’s time to put down the gloves and work out a solution to ensure that
the market lasts another 100 years.