Hillsboro Farmer's Market
Just another recreational shopping venue
It's very clear that Hillsboro's Farmers Markets is all about giving citizens yet another place to indulge in America's favorite pasttime -- recreational shopping. You know, consumption mostly for consumption's sake.
A friend from Portland recently accompanied me to the Hillsboro Market on Saturday morning and he commented on how much junk, and how little produce, was actually for sale. I guess that since Hillsboro's rulers are all about encouraging more yuppies to come here, they have to have the trendy new feel good fad available.
Forget that Market Management has been promising to start taking food stamps for over 3 years. It's clear there is no real plan to do it since every time someone asks about it, they get a different 'excuse'. "Oh, when we have a volunteer who is willing to guarantee 3 days a week..." or "Oh, when we have enough money to pay for the processing fees..." or "Oh, when we have enough money to pay the start up fees..."
With such an attitude, what else can we assume than that those kind of people are not wanted at the market? I wonder how much the city spends on this Market each year. After all, they have paid to set up credit card processing, but then that's the way most yuppies pay for things, isn't it?!? Of course they have to cater to their needs.
So what is it about Hillsboro and the poor, the aged, and of course, the recently immigrated? It seems like they have to be scared into doing things for these groups. Maybe if they knew that disabled people stay away from the Market because of their policy or maybe if we could prove that fewer Asians and Latinos/Hispanics go because they don't accept food stamps they could be shamed into changing the policy.
But then, all you need to do is have the occasional 'ethnic' performer and your activity is culturally diverse, right? And we all know that some of their best friends are poor, aged, disabled, or illegal...
It's very clear that Hillsboro's Farmers Markets is all about giving citizens yet another place to indulge in America's favorite pasttime -- recreational shopping. You know, consumption mostly for consumption's sake.
A friend from Portland recently accompanied me to the Hillsboro Market on Saturday morning and he commented on how much junk, and how little produce, was actually for sale. I guess that since Hillsboro's rulers are all about encouraging more yuppies to come here, they have to have the trendy new feel good fad available.
Forget that Market Management has been promising to start taking food stamps for over 3 years. It's clear there is no real plan to do it since every time someone asks about it, they get a different 'excuse'. "Oh, when we have a volunteer who is willing to guarantee 3 days a week..." or "Oh, when we have enough money to pay for the processing fees..." or "Oh, when we have enough money to pay the start up fees..."
With such an attitude, what else can we assume than that those kind of people are not wanted at the market? I wonder how much the city spends on this Market each year. After all, they have paid to set up credit card processing, but then that's the way most yuppies pay for things, isn't it?!? Of course they have to cater to their needs.
So what is it about Hillsboro and the poor, the aged, and of course, the recently immigrated? It seems like they have to be scared into doing things for these groups. Maybe if they knew that disabled people stay away from the Market because of their policy or maybe if we could prove that fewer Asians and Latinos/Hispanics go because they don't accept food stamps they could be shamed into changing the policy.
But then, all you need to do is have the occasional 'ethnic' performer and your activity is culturally diverse, right? And we all know that some of their best friends are poor, aged, disabled, or illegal...
posted by xj at 4:34 AM
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