Pictured: vegetables from the Sacred Heart farmer's market Jan. 8.
Pressure from Los Angeles County forced the closure of the Altadena Community Farmer's Market at Sacred Heart Catholic Church today says one of the organizers, days after the Altadena Town Council told the county to look into setting up a market at Loma Alta Park.
That's the story from Gene Stevenson, a Sacred Heart parishioner who was one of the organizers of the market which has been in the church parking lot for the past two weeks. Stevenson said that he received a call Friday afternoon from Manny Hernandez, one of the partners in the company that was running the market, who said that they "were not going to be able to continue."
"Manny indicated that they were under a lot of pressure from the county to relocate to the county park," Stevenson said. Manny Hernandez and his partner Rick Hernandez, no relation, run Air Machine Farmer's Markets, and is a subcontractor for other county-run farmer's markets.
The Sacred Heart market has no relationship to the county. Stevenson said that, after Air Machine's abortive attempt to start a farmer's market in Farnsworth Park last year, he contacted them to see about setting up in the Sacred Heart parking lot.
The Sacred Heart farmer's market was open the past two Saturdays, Jan. 8 and 15, and was rather sparse and not well attended. Stevenson said that Sacred Heart was planning a big marketing push to promote the market, until Manny Hernandez's call yesterday.
On Tuesday, the Altadena Town Council instructed the county to continue looking into setting up a farmer's market at Loma Alta Park, despite the market opening at Sacred Heart and the monthly Altadena Urban Farmer's Market at the Zane Grey Estate.
Stevenson said that the vote was disappointing in that it "pits one community institution up against another,"
"Sacred Heart has been an institution since God knows when," Stevenson said. "[The market] was available to the community and from the community. As a community, we should push together to make it succeed."
The council's vote to set up a market in Loma Alta "certainly did no favors to the efforts we did at Sacred Heart," Stevenson said. "It seems to me -- what the hell difference does it make? Otherwise, it makes it seem like a crown in the institution that lands it."
Stevenson, who helped organize the market at Villa Parke in Pasadena, said that the markets did not have to compete with each other. "The alternative could have been another market day."
Town Council chairman Gino Sund said that the council was pursuing a Loma Alta Park farmer's market to respond to the positive response to the idea from the community. "We continue to look for input from the community about what it would want,' Sund said. "Except two or three people, we have a positive response."
Manny Hernandez and Rick Hernandez had not returned calls as of press time.
