Michelle Obama-backed farmers market knots downtown traffic
By: Bill Myers
Examiner Staff Writer
September 18, 2009
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| First lady Michelle Obama organizes a farmers market on Vermont Avenue between H and I streets NW. (Examiner) |
A farmers market inspired and endorsed by first lady Michelle Obama snarled traffic Thursday in downtown Washington as commuters and pedestrians found themselves trying to navigate a security gantlet. FreshFarms Market had lobbied furiously to peddle its wares on Vermont Avenue between H and I streets NW, every Thursday for the next six weeks. Its organizers promised to bring locally grown food to Washingtonians in the shadow of the White House. They dropped the first lady's name in their conversations. The result: The market was opened to the public Thursday. It closed down Vermont Avenue. "It's a great day for farmers," said Mary Ellen Taylor of Virginia's Endless Summer Harvest, which offered customers hydroponic lettuce. It wasn't such a great day for commuters. Through the day, traffic near McPherson Square was in turmoil and the cacophony of horns and squeaking brakes could be heard. A woman in a wheelchair had to pick her way through a maze of iron gates to get to work at the Department of Veterans Affairs. "It's good to have a choice," said hot dog vendor T.K. Woldemak, who had to move his stand around the block to make way for Thursday's vendors. "But is it worthwhile to block the whole road?" D.C. Department of Transportation officials initially balked at granting a permit for the market but relented quickly and on Thursday morning, a fleet of bright orange trucks pulled up in front of the Veterans Administration building, police were dispatched and gates went up. DDOT didn't bother to inform the public of the shutdown until 10 a.m. "I didn't know about it," cab driver Derishe Alambo said as he hastily handed over the luggage to a fare, unable to get his client to his destination and forcing the man to walk a block out of his way. After buying some cheese, eggs, potatoes and kale, Michelle Obama hailed farmers markets as a great way to get healthy food to inner cities. "The kind of food that we put into our body gives us the energy to get through the day," she said. Passengers on Metro's L2 found out on their way to work that their bus would have to take a detour around McPherson Square to accommodate Thursday's shutdown. "The farmers market has been causing some angst," Metro spokeswoman Lisa Farbstein told WTOP radio. The VA seemed to have been caught off guard. With the Vermont Street entrance closed, some 50 regularly scheduled visitors and contractors were turned away because they didn't have the appropriate government pass to enter on the I Street side, a security guard said.
