Maxwell Street Market - what was up with it today?

I had never been to the new maxwell street market and had some friends in town on Sunday so I figured I'd take them over there for some mexican street food. I had read all the positives reviews about it and how there were hundreds of street vendors and lots of food stands. I went this Sunday (April 5) and I'd estimate that there were maybe 2 dozen vendors and about 5 or 6 food vendors. I'm thinking that I ran in to some sort of anomaly and what I saw was not the typical maxwell street market experience. The only thing we could thing of was that it was Palm Sunday and that kept most of the vendors away and/or it was about 40 degrees and cloudy/light rain. We walked up and down Des Plaines between Roosevelt and Harrison and there was one vendor every 20 feet or so; tons of empty space. Is this how it normally is?? I will say that one of the food stands did have some awesome al pastor and fresh made corn tortillas, the tacos were awesome.

BigT wrote:I had never been to the new maxwell street market and had some friends in town on Sunday so I figured I'd take them over there for some mexican street food. I had read all the positives reviews about it and how there were hundreds of street vendors and lots of food stands. I went this Sunday (April 5) and I'd estimate that there were maybe 2 dozen vendors and about 5 or 6 food vendors. I'm thinking that I ran in to some sort of anomaly and what I saw was not the typical maxwell street market experience. The only thing we could thing of was that it was Palm Sunday and that kept most of the vendors away and/or it was about 40 degrees and cloudy/light rain. We walked up and down Des Plaines between Roosevelt and Harrison and there was one vendor every 20 feet or so; tons of empty space. Is this how it normally is?? I will say that one of the food stands did have some awesome al pastor and fresh made corn tortillas, the tacos were awesome.

I would say what you describe is definitely anomalous, and I doubt the weather had much to do with it. I would assume the lack of vendors was due to the religious holiday...which means it should be really dead (ironically) next Sunday.

Maybe it was the combo of bad weather and Palm Sunday.

I've noticed a drop in the number of vendors on bitter-cold/yuck weather days since the market has moved to the new location. I was there on a particularly cold and windy day in January (the 25th?), and there were maybe 12 to 15 vendors there, and only 1 or 2 food vendors. This was rarely the case, even on bitter days, when the market was on Canal.

I wonder...if Easter Sunday is blazing sunny and 60 degrees, will commerce trump the resurrection?

Mess of a market, Chicago Journal, March 25, 2009

This also might explain the low vendor turnout...

crrush wrote:Mess of a market, Chicago Journal, March 25, 2009

This also might explain the low vendor turnout...

From TFA:

Some vendors said that employees of Jam Productions, the private firm hired by the city to operate the market, even threatened to call immigration enforcement agencies against Latino workers Such threats could violate an ordinance forbidding city employees to inquire about immigration status.

Several calls for Jam Productions to be replaced were met with cheers from the dozens of vendors and family members attending Tuesday night's meeting.

Xan Guzik, director of festivals for Jam, declined to comment after the meeting ended.

"I can tell you none of my people would do that. I don't, none of my people would do that," she said, when asked about repeated accusations of poor treatment and the alleged immigration threats.

The Department of Consumer Affairs awarded Jam a $1.47 million contract to run the market from August 2006 to August 2008. Disclosure forms in that contract lists Oui Oui Enterprises, We're Cleaning Inc. and Safety Services Systems as Jam's subcontractors. The city and firm's latest agreement could not be found on the Department of Procurement Services Web site

Is there anything our city won't lease?

crrush wrote:Mess of a market, Chicago Journal, March 25, 2009

This also might explain the low vendor turnout...

Holy cow. Thanks for the link, crrush.