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Originally Posted by Hayward
Wow, sounds kind of like a public market concept. I was thinking about this a few months ago how many cities have these huge public market buildings or town square market areas. I realize Fulton Market was one of those places historically and now we have the French Market which is nice. But I was thinking something bigger. On a visit home over the past holidays I went to the farmers market in Flint, Michigan and the building was huge. Two stories of retail, restaurants, food stands, office space, an atrium for large performances, and rooftop dining. I figured Chicago could pull something off similar easily.
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Fulton Market has never really been a public market. As others mentioned, Fulton Market has always been a wholesale/commercial market area that distributes directly to restaurants and stores. There are a few places that sell to the public (like Issacson $ Stein Fish Co) as well as wholesale, but for the most part the operations on Fulton are closed to the public.
That is changing, however, as more people, restaurants and offices move into the area. The city has been pushing to have more farmers market activities there, and Green City Market now has a saturday public market on Fulton during the summer.
Part of CDOT's efforts with the Fulton Streetscape project are to create a curb-less "flex street" zone between Green and Morgan that will allow the street to easily be closed to traffic at certain times to host more events like this on a regular basis.
The Flint farmers market is great, by the way. I've been to it a few times and am amazed, even in the winter, the crowds that they are drawing.