Faced with too high fees, too many regulations, too many empty spaces, and too much abuse, the vendors at the City run New Maxwell Street Market have formed the El Maxwell Street Market Asociación de Vendedores (also called the Maxwell Street Market Vendors Association) in the hope of stopping the steep downward decline of the Market. Most of the vendors and shoppers are Mexican immigrants and working class African-Americans. The Market size went from 1200 vendors in the early 1990s, to 500 in 1994 on Canal Street, to less than 100 today on DesPlaines St. and continuing falling every month.
Roosevelt University Professor of Economics Steve Balkin says, “This drop in market size and number of customers is NOT because of the jobs recession. It is because the Market has become the General Motors of outdoor markets – too costly – too inefficient – bad management. The Market is not run by people with significant retail experience; nor by people who are bilingual. The Market is run by English-only speaking City bureaucrats and regulators who know nothing of the bottom line; nor about Mexican culture; nor about grassroots community markets.”
Enrique Aurgueta, Vice President of El Maxwell Street Market Asociación de Vendedores (Maxwell Street Market Vendors Association), says, “We are being squeezed to death. The big decline started when the Market was moved to Desplaines St. with fewer vendor spaces. Then vendor fees were doubled to pay for the City’s Jumping Jack’s Program; then parking for vendors and shoppers was taken away. Now the City wants to increase our fees again to cost-shift their insurance expenses on to us. We are paying more but getting less services compared to similar outdoor Markets such as Swap-A-Rama on Ashland and the Rosemont Market.”
But wait, there’s more!
