Development at Farmers Market

With the proposed redevelopment of Farmers Market, it is safe to say the Southland will again lose a large chapter in its quickly fading history. But what becomes worse about this loss is the ardent indifference of Hilty, president of the A.F. Gilmore Co., and the Gilmore family, which owns Farmers Market.

Their reasons behind the redevelopment evolve from competition. Both Hilty and the Gilmore Co. believe the market fails to be competitive with modern-day establishments such as malls and department stores. This makes the redevelopment of the market a necessary, if not, through the adamantine speech of Hilty, life-saving venture.

However, there are those, many of those, I should add, who beg to differ.

Farmers Market is fine the way it is, and if money is an object, A.F Gilmore Co. is making plenty of it.

Neither Councilmen John Ferraro nor Zev Yaroslavsky, Hilty nor even two consecutive Times articles (Oct. 10-11) mentioned the monthly fees A.F. Gilmore Co. collects from each stall at Farmers Market. There are over 20 stalls in the food section of the market, all of which pay a 20-30% cut as rent from their monthly income. Additionally, for every new stall built, the owner pays a deposit on the space. When looked at in monthly dollar figures of at least $9,000 per stall, the Gilmores do not seem to be living lean on the land.

The quaint personality of the market will die from the traffic and additional population that must inevitably surface from the proposed three department stores, hotel and office building A.F. Gilmore Co. plans to build. No longer will there be a certain quiet in the morning, afternoon and evening hours over coffee and conversation, an enchantment which has been identified with the market for more than 60 years. All that can be expected from the redevelopment is a stifling, overcrowded urgency, unlike anything ever seen on Third and Fairfax.

DAVID DORION, Los Angeles