Move the Sunday Farmers Market to East Side of CTA. We need your support and participation!

Please sign the petition if you align with the following initiative:

https://form.jotform.com/240737201874153

INITIATIVE:

THE NEW GLENWOOD SUNDAY FARMERS MARKET & ALFRESCO EXPERIENCE 2024

PROPOSAL:

This initiative is presented as an exciting new branding and location for the market while maintaining

the strong foundation that commenced in 2010, including the progress, success, and significance of its

historic past, as well as its exciting future.

TASK:

Re-locate market to east side of CTA, in same block, between Morse and Lunt, on North Glenwood Ave.

ORIGINS:

What transpired in our first season, as we were all hoping to collaborate, seemed cumbersome and

frustrating for those of us who attempted to find our way through the dress-rehearsal of combining

Alfresco and the Sunday market. I think we all had the best of intentions as we dove into uncharted

territory. There were no models or protocols to follow for this particular “marriage” as a reference

point…..and the guidance archive was kind of undetermined and there were a lot of unknowns at the start.

Without these specific formats and protocols to show us how to navigate, we collectively took on the

process in realtime…..and although we managed, the issues we encountered, presented challenges and

changes in our working relationships that divided us, and to this point, sadly didn’t even allow us to

celebrate collectively, bringing a new facet to Sunday’s weekly summer gathering……a treasured and

essential aspect of Rogers Park culture.

Visualize and imagine not only the market, but also art and music and programming that we now could

accommodate while not competing for street space or stepping upon each other in the futile attempts we

made, previously.

ADVANTAGE POINTS:

• RPBA CTA storage space opens directly onto N Glenwood

• Relocation is 25 steps from original footprint, minimizing attendee confusion

• Market Autonomy: NO businesses on east side of tracks to interrupt, suspend, block, or move.

• No building service access points for tenants or parking along entire stretch blocked or obstructed.

• Alfresco Autonomy: Business responsibilities, remain in place, per usual

• Outdoor music programming, featured, underwritten cultural nutrition, on Sundays, 11AM-1PM

• which compliments shoppers experience.

• We would eventually (future) like to add and open up the alfresco side as a local artisan market in addition to the farmers market

• The removal of wrought iron chairs, tables, barrels etc. from street, which has been a logistics nightmare, and an unreasonable request of our staff after Saturday night service, no longer required.

• No more back ups in a one lane alley

• No more blockage of our parking lot from vendors or RPBA service staff

• Le Piano will re-open for brunch on Sundays…..there is currently a lack of breakfast and lunch options

• Businesses along the entire stretch of Glenwood including south of Morse, will be open for business

• The New Sunday Market & Alfresco Experience will emerge as the next iteration of what the market has brought us for twelve wonderful years; a destination in the heart of the Glenwood Avenue Arts District which reinvents a great existing concept, while taking on the stewardship of a fresh vision for the future

The New 2024 Sunday Farmers Market & Glenwood Ave Arts & Entertainment District

To Whom it may concern:

  In April of 2023, I humbly began the futile process of trying to schedule a formal presentation of a new vision for our cultural center for the arts. This proposal was supposed to be heard and seen by the Rogers Park Business Alliance and relative [boards] of directors and other community leaders and agencies. Not one of my requests for access was granted. Of the leadership pillars I engaged, not one offered any support or participation at best, remained neutral, not for, not against, which halts any movement whatsoever. This posturing serves no one in our community.

  Frustrated, I temporarily relinquished my efforts to participate in fostering cultural nutrition on Glenwood Avenue.  This proposal was actually dismissed before it was presented to the community….we’ve been kept constituents; kept from information, kept from access, kept from growth, kept from participation, kept out of the interpersonal politics that govern a neighborhood culture, sometimes blindly; lacking the notion to look beyond business as usual. We need to become the cog that moves action that we collectively support, and I am asking for community support to move forward with an exciting new vision for the Sunday Market and Alfresco open air programming. This is a call for us to actually implement the very message and perhaps, manifest of our mile of murals; “The Heart of Rogers Park Arts District”, in addition to the Farmers Market.

   My vision was to find a solution for community-building change and growth; as an arts & entertainment-based footprint on which to build and offer a “center for the arts” destination that shapes a future…… bestowing unlimited possibilities for both Rogers Park and the City of Chicago. Our former deputy mayor, Samir Mayekar, designated the Glenwood Alfresco, as “emblematic”in the city of Chicago, and beyond.

    Rather, I continued to focus on building my own award-winning jazz club, now ranked at the very top among our esteemed iconic gold standard jazz and performance art venues. I was an ordinary leader asking, apparently, too many extraordinary questions for the above-mentioned leadership agencies of our community to consider. I am willing to “destroy my reputation” by taking a stand on bringing good change to Rogers Park. Le Piano has been bound, gagged, strangled, silenced, dismissed, ticketed, threatened, and wrangled by authorities in this neighborhood, literally. I asked for advisement on protocol, and procedure, and have no response or participation.

   In order to see, one must have vision, and in order to have vision, one must have the ability to dream forward, and in order to dream forward, one must look for the glimmers of hope, or to the dreamers, who inspire a future that stands for the betterment of all people: transcending personal vendettas and political gamesmanship. We must work together to achieve something beyond settling for less than our potential. We must consider the perspectives of another; and we must align with what we discover is best for the sum of all its parts.

  The national stage has recently put a spotlight on the delicacy of our democracy and, may I remind us, of what our fiery Vice President, Kamala Harris, said in Nashville, about year ago:

“Democracy says you don’t silence the people, democracy says you do not turn off the microphones when they are speaking about life…and liberty….” And I would add further,

”we don’t silence the music, bring down the art, or dismiss reason, nor do we omit relevant, rational, through-composed,  emblematic, community- building initiatives”.

Respectfully Submitted,

Chad Willetts

Musician | Composer | Artistic Director | Owner | Dreamer |

Le Piano | 773-209-7631