SEE-LA's Sunday Atwater Village Farmers' Market has been given until June 30 to leave their location at the Wells Fargo parking lot on Glendale Blvd. in Atwater Village.

According to a reliable source, the Wells Fargo's Atwater Branch Office gave the market notice this week, without prior warning or time to adequately research, execute or promote a move to a suitable new location. Without a proper transition, the market and all of the work establishing this community event and its service to the community over the last few years will be lost.

The Sunday morning market serves Atwater Village and the surrounding neighborhoods of Echo Park, Glassell Park, Glendale, Los Feliz and Silverlake,. It is sponsored by and benefits small family farms, local communities and the good works of SEE-LA : http://www.farmernet.com
avfm@see-la.org.

Please let Wells Fargo and your community leaders, activists and press know how you feel about losing your local neighborhood farmers' market and this important community event asap!
There is little time left to save the Atwater Village Farmers' Market.

Wells Fargo
Atwater Branch
3250 Glendale Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90039
323 663-8024

Wells Fargo Corporate Properties Group
333 South Grand Ave.
Los Angeles, CA 90071
213 253-7166

District 13 Councilmember Eric Garcetti

200 North Spring Street,
Room 470
Los Angeles, California 90012
(213) 473-7013
Fax:(213) 613 0819

Hollywood Office
5500 Hollywood Blvd., 4th Floor
Hollywood, CA 90028
Phone: 323-957-4500
councilmember.garcetti@lacity.org

Atwater Village Field Deputy - Kabira Stokes Hochberg : kabira.stokes.hochberg@lacity.org

Atwater Village. Chamber of Commerce. P.O. Box 39754. Los Angeles, CA 90039 323.634.2535 or webmail@atwaterchamber.org

Atwater Village Neighborhood Council Board 2007-2009/2010
AVNC@atwatervillage.org
website@atwatervillage.org

Friends Of Atwater Village (FAV) - www.friendsofatwatervillage.org

Silverlake Neighborhood Council
Governing Board
phone: 323-661-SLNC
All other committees
phone: 323-661-7562
Board@SilverLakeNC.org
Greater Griffith Park Neighborhood Council - http://www.ggpnc.org/
Glassell Park Neighborhood Council - http://www.glassellparknc.com/

SAVE THE ATWATER FARMERS' MARKET !! Spread the word.

Calling them all now, thanks Susan!

Call Judy Fishman at Wells Corporate - the number is 213-253-3274. I have spoken also with Garcetti's office and they do have someone working on this. His name is Arson (didn't get the last name) but I left him a message too. Call their office at 213-473-7013.

this is an outrage. I was told by the Wells Atwater Branch that they are "in the process" of closing the market, but that they couldn't give me any info. What's interesting is that Wells corporate website talks about how responsible to the community they are. We have to fight this!!!

Update! I spoke with Judy just now.

She says its all about the trash left behind and that Acapulco restaurant complains people ask to use the bathroom. And that homeless people hang out near the storage locker where I guess they keep tables.

So I'm going to talk to the managers this Sunday to see what can be done about the trash. Its mostly the cooked food vendors w ho are the problem so maybe that can be solved with different packaging/more responsibility for trash on their part. I'm also willing to see if the market needs trash volunteers to help police the cleanup.

She seemed as fair as she could seem - given that the bank manager complains that the bank smells on Monday morning. I think he would love to see it closed.

So they have a meeting with Garcetti's team on Tuesday at the Wells branch.

There must be a lot of other places to have a Farmer's market on a Sunday. I see there's an arts and crafts fair in the Mitcheltorena school playground every Saturday. Is Sunday a problem for using school space?

And what about that huge empty-on-Sundays parking lot of the (I think) one-time Safeway on Hyperion?

Thank you, Silver Lake neighbors, for all your support. My name is Leonora Gershman Pitts, and I'm the co-chair of the Atwater Village Neighborhood Council. We are really amazed by the community response to Wells Fargo's threats, and we are hoping that our hard work and your hard work will change the branch manager's mind about this.

The Atwater branch has been so generous with our community in the past, which is why my husband and I decided to bank there in the first place. It's also why these developments are so disheartening.

To answer your question, parabanger, we definitely want to keep the Atwater Village Farmers' Market in Atwater Village! We need this market desperately. It's an integral part of the fabric of this beautiful little village. The WF parking lot is the ideal place for the market as it's right in the middle of the Village, so many, many families can actually walk there. We are a tiny village, and space is limited for us.

Thanks again for all your support, neighbors from across the river. We really appreciate it.

Leonora, I didnt mean to suggest that the Atwater Farmers' Market at WF should be disbanded. I go there myself and I like it. I just wondered why it is so hard to find a place for these markets.

What is Wells Fargo's cost for allowing the Sunday event?

Hey there Leonora! I am hoping that there is a way we heavy users of the market can find a way to help this situation too. I don't know the group who puts it on, but I am hoping to see someone this Sunday and ask if there is something we can do to help.
Wells Fargo does not charge for this use. And they seem fairly bent on closing it down, despite phone calls and protests. I think realistically the only solution is finding a way to fix the trash problem. Hopefully it will get resolved!
We Silverlakers thank Atwater folks for hosting such a fantastic market! and we love the shops there. From across the river - thank you!

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lanow/2009/06/atwater-village-farm-market-saved-by-the-bank-1.html

The 4-year-old Atwater Village farmers market, which is held on Sunday mornings in a bank parking lot, has escaped a threat of eviction, a bank spokeswoman says.

That's amazing and great! and kind of surprising considering I spoke with the Wells Fargo person on Thursday and she certainly did not give the impression that anything would happen before the meeting on Tuesday. Yeah!

I've heard through the grapevine that it's not over yet. The bank is now going to start to charge the farmers' market weekly -and it may be more than they can afford to pay. I think that the market could still use the community's support and involvement while the current and possibly a new location is being worked out.