Market’s Finale : Officials Allow Last College Swap Meet Before Closing

El Mercado, the popular swap meet that has operated in the parking lot of Rancho Santiago College each week since 1987, will be held for the final time Sunday.

This week, Superior Court Judge William F. Rylaarsdam issued an injunction ordering the swap meet to shut down immediately because it violates Santa Ana zoning laws.

The injunction follows the city’s appellate court victory in December giving it the power to close the swap meet because of the zoning violation. The city had to wait for the appeal period to expire before seeking an order to close the swap meet.

The college had maintained during a three-year legal battle that El Mercado, the city’s only outdoor swap meet, was exempt from such zoning because the swap meet raised money for educational programs.

City officials said Thursday that they will allow El Mercado to be held one last time because there wasn’t enough time to notify vendors of the closure, City Atty. Edward J. Cooper said.

“It’s basically over,” said Shirley Ralston, president of the college’s Board of Trustees. “The city has worked with us amiably and cordially to extend the time so we can have the mercado this weekend. Flyers will be distributed in both Spanish and English informing both the vendors and the community that the swap meet will close.”

For the more than 100 vendors who spent the last three months aggressively lobbying both the college and the city in hopes of finding a way to save El Mercado, the news came as a major disappointment.

“That swap meet is how I pay for my kids to go to school,” said Arturo Aguirre, who has sold women’s clothing at El Mercado since it opened at the college in 1987. “There are a lot of people who are going to be affected financially by this. I really hate to see it go, especially since it seems to be such a small group of people who are pushing it out.”

Ralston said the college has done all it can to try to save the swap meet, which had drawn complaints from area residents about noise, traffic and litter.

“I hope that the community we served, the Latino population, understands that we did all that we could,” Ralston said.

On Feb. 11, the college board announced that it would not appeal, saying that continuing the battle would not be prudent in light of the state’s financial woes.

On Monday, the board kept the hopes of vendors alive when they voted to try to move the swap meet to Centennial Park and form a task force with the city to explore that possibility.

But earlier in the day, the City Council had already rejected the idea and voted not to take part in the task force. Several council members said they felt that Centennial Park was an inappropriate location for a swap meet.