Fred Kent, President of the Project for Public Spaces, posed a provocative question to the audience at the Eighth Annual International Public Markets Conference last month.

“Could place-making be one of the transformative ideas of the 21st century?” he asked.

Think about it. Americans hunger for an alternative to the soulless pseudo-cities that sprawl throughout the ‘burbs. One reason why young people, families and empty nesters are moving back to urban communities is they offer a sense of place.

Yet speaking before an audience of 250-plus market leaders at the conference in Cleveland, Kent took the idea one step further. Public markets are the granddaddies of all place-makers, he said, bringing people together like big, irresistible magnets. So what if we used our public markets to build and enhance great places in cities?

“How do we use markets to create multi-use destinations, places that everyone can be part of? This idea gets us back to our roots. It’s about making the whole city a market.”

Of course, this is an idea that is not entirely unfamiliar to Ohio City residents. Residents and businesses have always come here to be close to the West Side Market, which is now celebrating 100 years of serving the city with a host of festivals, fetes and parties.

In fact, the reason why the Public Markets Conference was held in Cleveland last month is in part because our own West Side Market offers a wonderful case study. In recent years, dozens of new businesses have sprung up on West 25th Street, filling empty storefronts with brazen entrepreneurs, great new restaurants and even a hostel.

“We had 24 vacant storefronts just a few years ago and now we hardly have any,” said Ohio City Councilman Joe Cimperman during a plenary talk on “Creating a Market City.”

These entrepreneurs are flocking here in part because the West Side Market is the best anchor tenant in the world. It attracts one million-plus visitors per year from everywhere. 

Eric Wobser, Executive Director of Ohio City Inc., said that he first became obsessed with the idea of luring the Eighth Annual International Public Markets Conference to Cleveland after attending the last conference in San Francisco in September 2009.

“I went to the conference because we were launching the Centennial planning process, and I came back bubbling with ideas,” he said. “I started to think about ways to not just celebrate the market, but also position it for the success of the city and the community.”

Mayor Frank Jackson said that the market and local food are priorities for the city. “We want to see local food produced in our neighborhoods and sold in our market,” he said.

Kathleen Merrigan, Deputy Secretary for the U.S. Department of Agriculture, told the audience that the West Side Market and other public markets across the country are ripe for renewal. “We’re here because we recognize that markets are about so much more than selling food,” she said. “They also serve as the foundations for access to healthy food, links between producers and the community and hubs of opportunity.”

Merrigan promoted the USDA’s “Know Your Farmer, Know Your Food” program and the agency’s efforts to create regional food hubs across the U.S. that bring together both farmers and consumers to create effective distribution models for local produce.

Many local food advocates have championed the idea that the West Side Market could become a regional food hub. Plans are currently in the works to roll out the “Eating Local at the Market” program this fall to promote existing local food choices. Organizers are also trying to recruit local farmers to operate a cooperative stand at the market.

Currently, about 10 percent of the West Side Market vendors are participating in the “Eating Local at the Market” program. Stands like the Basketeria, Maple Valley Sugarbush and Farm and Ohio City Pasta sell locally grown/made foods. Organizers hope to increase the amount of local food available at the market in the future.

The conference also highlighted what the West Side Market could learn from other cities. Speaking at the plenary session, market managers from the Santa Monica Farmers Market, Detroit Eastern Market and Tai Yuen Market in Hong Kong offered useful ideas and case studies that could be applied to the West Side Market, too.

The Santa Monica Farmers Market revitalized a moribund mall in downtown Santa Monica. It now has four locations. Vendors bring the food to where the people are, transforming public spaces by setting up shop in local parks or closing city streets.

“We have bike valet at the Sunday market,” said Laura Avery, Supervisor of the market. “We took our car parking spaces right in front of the market in order to make it happen.”

The Santa Monica schools also offer a “Salad Bar” program that brings schoolchildren to the farmers market once a week to learn about – and eat – local and healthy foods.

Finally, Avery boasted about the market’s how-to cooking demonstrations, “Meatless Mondays” events that teach people how to eat vegetarian, and a ban on plastic bags.

The Detroit Eastern Market has embraced its future as a local food hub for the metro area, said Manager Dan Carmody, by recruiting and supporting local, urban farmers.

“We see ourselves as the hub of a resurgent local food system,” he said. “We lost market share from 1950-2000; our job now is to rebuild that market share again.”

To sign up more local farmers, the Eastern Market launched a small grant program. It also supported the Detroit Market Garden, which incubates farmers and creates jobs.

The Tai Yuen Market in Hong Kong offers another case study. “Fish swimming in the tanks – that’s what we mean by a fresh and local market,” joked Manager Myron Ng.

The Tai Yuen Market recently invested $12 million in renovations that included adding a ventilation system to deal with the offending odors from live chickens sold at the market.

The newly revamped market also incorporates a cooking studio that will be used to “teach the new generation how to cook and eat properly,” Ng told the audience.

Cleveland Councilman Joe Cimperman, who touted his experiences working in his uncle’s Slovenian butcher shop growing up in the St. Clair Superior neighborhood, offered his own passionate ideas about changes needed at the West Side Market.

“People at the market are looking too much at last year’s calendar,” he said. “The market won’t survive unless we look at tomorrow, and that takes political courage.”

Several changes are currently being proposed at the West Side Market. Charging visitors a modest fee for parking is among the most controversial of the new ideas. Right now, the city is still negotiating with the vendors association on the proposal. 

Ultimately, Cimperman said, the West Side Market and others like it remind us that food not only brings us together, but is part of our shared responsibility towards one another.

“It’s about food justice. In this country, we’re supposed to help each other eat. The market does not allow us to forget that we are here in community with each other.”