Lured by trendy TikToks flaunting stylishly dressed shoppers and colorful produce, upward of 15,000 people now attend the Logan Square Farmers Market every week, which features a wide range of products from smelly raclette to honey-infused tahini, said organizer Nilda Esparza.
As the popular market reached new heights, it even became a go-to spot for singles searching for romance. But the growth also made the market unsafe, Esparza said.
Esparza requested earlier this summer a stretch of Logan Boulevard near the market be closed when the market occurs after fast cars had “close calls” with the overflow crowd. When the street closure wasn’t granted by the city, the Logan Square Chamber of Commerce director decided to cancel the market for this weekend.
The backlash was swift.
“I’m livid,” Ald. Carlos Ramirez-Rosa, 35th, wrote on X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter.
After a dayslong back-and-forth between the market organizer and authorities, the market will be back open Sunday.
Esparza praised Ramirez-Rosa and Ald. Daniel La Spata, 1st, whose wards both include parts of Logan Square, for working with the Chicago Police Department and Department of Transportation when she announced the market would be open in an email to customers Friday.
She also credited Mayor Brandon Johnson for help in addressing the safety concerns.
“Your push in making this happen has made our farmers market, not only safer, but stronger,” Esparza said of Johnson. “The mecca of farm culture in Logan Square remains alive!”
The Logan Square Chamber of Commerce did not say Friday what streets would be closed near the market. Esparza had earlier proposed to CDOT and CPD a closure of Logan Boulevard from Milwaukee Avenue to Sacramento Avenue, she told the Tribune Thursday.
Authorities had not accepted her request earlier in the week, despite the closure being granted before for the first and last market of the year, she said.
Esparza had tried for weeks to direct wandering pedestrians and confused or frustrated drivers around the market.
“No matter how much I beef up with volunteers and staff, it’s just not safe,” Esparza told the Tribune Thursday morning, when the market was still set to be canceled for the weekend after the closure wasn’t granted at the meeting earlier this week. She was considering moving the market away from the neighborhood’s center, she said.
“The market has its own heartbeat. It’s a pretty amazing place to be and it’s extremely special. I don’t want it to be tainted by an accident,” Esparza said.
Ramirez-Rosa quickly backed the market when the closure was announced.
“It’s totally reasonable and this is exactly the type of space activation that we as a city should be supporting,” Ramirez-Rosa told the Tribune Thursday.
Each year, hundreds of thousands of people visit Logan Square when they come to the market, Ramirez-Rosa said. They end up eating at Logan Square restaurants, shopping at Logan Square stores and getting to know the neighborhood, he said.
“It is an economic engine for our community,” Ramirez-Rosa said. “This is an extremely important event that helps feed so many families. Not just families that come and purchase food there, but the families that are selling food there as well.”
La Spata, like Ramirez-Rosa, pledged to help the market come to an agreement with city officials. He had heard concerns about people driving fast near the overspilling crowds, he said.
“I really appreciate the chamber thinking about the safety of their guests and their vendors,” La Spata said Thursday. “I also personally believe that we can work out a solution for the short- and long-term that doesn’t necessitate the market closing.”
The cancellation had threatened to deliver a financial blow to the dozens of small businesses that sell snacks, flowers, vegetables, bread, fruit and more at the market.
The Logan Square market is the biggest in Chicagoland for River Valley Ranch & Kitchens, a Burlington-based farm that grows mushrooms and vegetables to sell at markets throughout Illinois and Wisconsin, general manager Jennifer Brown said.
The markets are essential for the mushroom farm. It wouldn’t be in business without them, she said.
“It’s how we build our nest egg for the winter … and keep everyone employed,” Brown said before the market was reopened.
Vang Noua, owner of Pleasant Hill Produce, said Thursday that he planned to hold off on picking his flowers and vegetables for the market this week.
He expected much of the food he sells — tomatoes, bell peppers, garlic, beets, sweet char, kale, green and yellow beans, squash, zucchini, jalapeños, eggplant, onions, cilantro, dill and more — to keep quickly growing at his Richfield farm. It would have likely become too big and unfit to sell, he said.
“It’s pretty bad for me,” Noua said at the time. “All my stuff is junk.”
The farm owner, who typically sets up on a market corner near Logan Boulevard, grows his produce organically and without pesticides, he said. He’s sold it himself at the market for around six years, he added.
He estimated a one-weekend closure would have cost him between $5,000 and $6,000.
Esparza said Thursday she knew the closure was set to come in the middle of the market’s peak season and would be detrimental to many livelihoods. It wasn’t a decision she took lightly, she said. But she felt the short-lived closure was in the vendors’ best interest.
“Your resiliency is what was at the forefront,” she wrote to vendors Friday as she announced the market would be open. “It guided us and ultimately led us to where we needed to be for a safer farmers market experience.”
jsheridan@chicagotribune.com
