High Street May Lose Farmers’ Market

The recently opened farmers’ market downtown may need to relocate to survive, but if it moves, it will do so without city sponsorship.

The Moorpark City Council voted Wednesday to spend $150 on flyers advertising the market, which opened in June in the Metrolink parking lot on High Street. But Cynthia Korman, the market’s manager, told council members that the weekly market was losing both customers and farmers. Saving the market, she said, would probably mean moving to a more visible location, such as somewhere on Los Angeles Avenue.

“I don’t see how we can really fix it where we are on High Street,” she said. “The flow of traffic is not there.”

Council members said they wanted the market to continue. But part of the idea behind the market, to which the city contributed $1,500 in start-up and advertising costs, was to bring more shoppers into downtown Moorpark. If the market relocates from High Street, it will have to survive without city help, council members said.

“The focus has always been not just to bring a farmers’ market to Moorpark, but to bring a farmers’ market to High Street,” Councilman Bernardo Perez said.