City forces Farmers Market relocation to City Hall Play

The Malibu Farmers Market was forcibly relocated to City Hall on Sunday.

City Manager Joe Irwin, interviewed at the scene, explained the action.

"Right now, we are standing on Civic Center Way adjacent to Legacy Park," Irwin said. "In July, in the middle of July, the city code enforcement team came down and issued a cease and desist letter, and handed it to the farmers market manager, saying that they had until August 1 to stop operations at this location."

So Sunday, the city spent an unknown amount of tax money to force the market's director, Debra Bianco, to stop using Civic Center Way and Legacy Park as the venue to rent out stalls to farmers, food makers and crafts salespeople.

Her permits to be in the street had long since expired. And she never had permits to operate in Legacy Park itself.

For 16 years, the Farmers Market had operated across the street in the county library parking lot. The county was willing to have her back now that the college has been constructed.

But Bianco and her Cornucopia Foundation associates refused to relocate the market back to its traditional home in the library parking lot.

On Sunday, Bianco waved away this KBUU reporter, so we do not have her side of the story.

That leaves City Manager Joe Irwin, on Civic Center Way, to say Bianco just would not accept that she cannot have Legacy Park or the city street in front of it.

No settlement.

"There was no action that was really taking place to expedite that, and in the spirit of compliance we even let that August 1st date proceed the following three weeks to accommodate compliance, and flexibility for a valued asset in our community, i.e., a Farmers Market," Irwin said. "We just finally reached a point where, with the public safety and turning a blind eye to the code compliance issues, was just not a viable option."

Of course, the real human impact was on the men and women selling flowers, lettuce and other perishable goods.

They had practically no customers.

The city did try. City Hall's PR machine had leapt into action, blasting out Instagrams and press releases and Facebook messages that the market was open at City Hall.

And city zoning workers at the old site were directing shoppers to ride or walk 500 yards up the hill to the relocated shopping bazaar, tucked away around the corner of the UCLA Urgent Care building, out of sight from the traditional locations.

By 10 a.m., the stalls had been set up in three tiers on the south side of the building. Shoppers were very few, very far between, and hot.

One shopper from Tarzana was baffled.

"I just don't understand why they can't work with these people," he said. "What's the big deal? These people are just trying to make a living. And then people like us like to come and shop at these things. But the city wants to evict?"

The human victims in this were the vendors, with bushels and bushels of fresh vegetables wilting and unsold.

Two women selling peaches and plums put an optimistic spin on it.

"It was exciting of course, but it was a bit slow and a bit hot," one said. "But yeah, our people found us for the most part."

Asked if next week might bring more signs and publicity, she said, "Yeah, hopefully, we are hoping next week will be busier."

Her colleague added: "It would be nice if we knew earlier so we could publicize it. But our people found us. Slow and toasty!"