Acquiring Food During a Pandemic

[panamaniac]

Last thing I saw (this was wrt Ottawa) was that the local craft brewers were having trouble keeping up with the demand for home delivery.

[tomh009]

I certainly wouldn't object to a supermarket, but after living here a while, I'm surprised how little of an obstacle it has been not having a supermarket, and I do think we would lose a lot of the smaller businesses if we did get a supermarket.

Same for us. With no market at the moment, we will do some supermarket trips (by car) but not often. Multiple stops is not an issue for us. And Sobeys is 20-25 minutes' walk from DTK if you like walking (I do).

[clasher]

I've had good luck just biking over to the sobeys and basics on highland for food. I have also been using the online shopping at full circle for all the specialty food that I like, you can phone upon arrival and they will bring the order out for you and go back inside, so no contact with that setup. I know it's more expensive than some stuff at sobeys but it's also the only place to get a bunch of products that I like. My parther went to New City last week and said no one seemed to be social distancing so I probably would head up to T&T since they require masks now, but that's gonna have to wait until next week I think, I saw a line outside there on Sunday.

[danbrotherston]

Sorry for the video:

https://kitchener.ctvnews.ca/video?cid=s...Id=1960393

Sounds like farmers markets are gearing up to operate. A few have already run, and are coming up with rules. The CoK's market (the one that impacts me most) they seem to be..."working on"....which is great. The outdoor portion should be easy though, the biggest thing is getting enough space, but we have tons of open space, we just have to be willing to use it--close the roads and put the vendors spread out in the street.

I am surprise though...ignoring the indoor parts of some markets like the Kitchener markets, outdoor transmission seems far less of a concern, so if grocery stores are open, outdoor produce markets should be safe by comparison, I'm a little disappointed we've taken this long to get to this point.

[plam]

Sorry for the video:

https://kitchener.ctvnews.ca/video?cid=s...Id=1960393

Sounds like farmers markets are gearing up to operate. A few have already run, and are coming up with rules.  The CoK's market (the one that impacts me most) they seem to be..."working on"....which is great. The outdoor portion should be easy though, the biggest thing is getting enough space, but we have tons of open space, we just have to be willing to use it--close the roads and put the vendors spread out in the street.

I am surprise though...ignoring the indoor parts of some markets like the Kitchener markets, outdoor transmission seems far less of a concern, so if grocery stores are open, outdoor produce markets should be safe by comparison, I'm a little disappointed we've taken this long to get to this point.

Yes, I'd definitely go with outdoor markets appearing to be safe based on what we know. Also more terrasses.

Tried to go to the markets here in NZ (they are supposed to be cleared to open) but they weren't operating yet today.

[clasher]

It would be a great time to close Eby to traffic by the market... at least half the road so the new city traffic can still get out, but we'd need to have by-law or auxilary police there to really force the cars to actually move instead of just blocking the road.

[danbrotherston]

It would be a great time to close Eby to traffic by the market... at least half the road so the new city traffic can still get out, but we'd need to have by-law or auxilary police there to really force the cars to actually move instead of just blocking the road.

Well, to be honest, I think New City should just deal with not having vehicle access on Saturday mornings, I mean, there's limited value with the small parking lot and a huge cost with the idling intrusive cars (and worse, the ones who drive up the sidewalk around them). I mean, I realize to some people, this is unthinkable, but objectively, it's quite reasonable.

That being said, there are a number of different options for spreading out the market, we have a ton of space around, if we're only willing to claw some back from cars. I personally like the Eby/Market Ln option, and it's probably the least disruptive, but you could also close King St. and spread the vendors all the way up King. Or even on Cedar.  Both of which would greatly increase the visibility of the Market over the tucked away position on Eby/Market Ln.  Of course, it would mostly be visible to local traffic (foot and car) which probably know about it already...but that's just a guess.

I mean, I personally would like to try out different options to see how well they work, but I'm a radical pro-change guy who can deal with week to week change like that to help find an optimal solution, or even just to spread out the visibility. I'm sure that change wouldn't be popular with everyone.

[panamaniac]

I've long thhought that Market Lane should be closed on market days to make space for a flea market.

[ijmorlan]

It would be a great time to close Eby to traffic by the market... at least half the road so the new city traffic can still get out, but we'd need to have by-law or auxilary police there to really force the cars to actually move instead of just blocking the road.

Well, to be honest, I think New City should just deal with not having vehicle access on Saturday mornings, I mean, there's limited value with the small parking lot and a huge cost with the idling intrusive cars (and worse, the ones who drive up the sidewalk around them). I mean, I realize to some people, this is unthinkable, but objectively, it's quite reasonable.

They could even rent out their parking lot space to more vendors.

[creative]

When the market first opened they used to close Eby and Market Lane for vendors. Unfortunately the demand for vendor space declined when the Mennonite farmers stopped coming. This was also before New City.

[tomh009]

I am surprise though...ignoring the indoor parts of some markets like the Kitchener markets, outdoor transmission seems far less of a concern, so if grocery stores are open, outdoor produce markets should be safe by comparison, I'm a little disappointed we've taken this long to get to this point.

As much as I miss the market, I think managing distancing in a market is much more difficult. Multiple independent vendors, lots of crowding and jostling (at least at normal times), no opportunity for plexiglass barriers, all cash transactions etc.

We will need to and want to solve this. But managing it will be a challenge.

[tomh009]

When the market first opened they used to close Eby and Market Lane for vendors. Unfortunately the demand for vendor space declined when the Mennonite farmers stopped coming. This was also before New City.

Why did they stop? This is before we moved to DTK (we were near the Waterloo/St Jacobs markets before).

[Coke6pk]

It would be a great time to close Eby to traffic by the market... at least half the road so the new city traffic can still get out, but we'd need to have by-law or auxilary police there to really force the cars to actually move instead of just blocking the road.

By-Law doesn't have the authority under the HTA for traffic direction.

Auxiliary Police do, but such traffic control is outside of their mandate.  You'd be looking at a paid duty officer on overtime, and someone would need to figure out who is paying for that.

Coke

[danbrotherston]

It would be a great time to close Eby to traffic by the market... at least half the road so the new city traffic can still get out, but we'd need to have by-law or auxilary police there to really force the cars to actually move instead of just blocking the road.

By-Law doesn't have the authority under the HTA for traffic direction.

Auxiliary Police do, but such traffic control is outside of their mandate.  You'd be looking at a paid duty officer on overtime, and someone would need to figure out who is paying for that.

Coke

The real solution is to charge market rates for parking at the market and at new city. With prices decreasing the farther you get from there, instead of what we do right now which is literally the opposite.

[ijmorlan]

It would be a great time to close Eby to traffic by the market... at least half the road so the new city traffic can still get out, but we'd need to have by-law or auxilary police there to really force the cars to actually move instead of just blocking the road.

By-Law doesn't have the authority under the HTA for traffic direction.

I’m not sure that what is being suggested is traffic direction; I think enforcement may be the idea. Specifically, enforcement of “no stopping” and “no parking”; I don’t think this precludes a friendly warning that enforcement will occur if the car doesn’t move in the next 15s.