New changes coming to West Side Market in Cleveland

West Side Market needs to go 2.0

(Marvin Fong, The Plain Dealer)

The iconic West Side Market has survived fires, urban flight, the Great Depression and the Great Recession, but now it faces its most serious threat since it opened its doors in 1912:

Success.

The city's most venerable vendor of victuals needs a major Hiemlich maneuver before it chokes to death on the crowds and the cars -- and a parking crunch created in part by a lack of planning and an aversion to change.

Enter Cleveland City Councilman Joe Cimperman, who represents the market district, along with officials from Ohio City Inc., the neighborhood development group, and key players in the Jackson administration.

Together, they are launching a logistical makeover that will create more parking spaces, more days and hours when the market is open and even the opportunity to imbibe while wandering the aisles.

These are smart and necessary improvements if the market wants to remain vital and relevant into the next century, particularly in a neighborhood attracting a new generation of gourmands hungry for its market-to-table ambience.

Even better, some of these changes are already in play at the West Side Market.

Last year, the city regained control of the market parking lot - which had been leased to the vendors - and plans to merge that lot, off Lorain Avenue, with an adjacent lot that could create more than 100 new spaces, Ken Silliman, the mayor's chief of staff, told Plain Dealer business reporter Michelle Jarboe McFee.

Parking at the market is now free. That, too, will change -- but only for those who use the lot for longer-term parking, Cimperman said for this editorial.

Options under discussion include free parking for the first 60-to 90-minutes, and then $1 an hour after that. The idea is to encourage "churn," Cimperman said.

Customers in. Customers out. No lollygagging.

Now, Cimperman said, people park their cars in the market lot, or along West 25th Street, all weekend.

To discourage the parking-space freeloaders on West 25th Street, Cimperman said he plans to introduce legislation that would activate parking meters throughout the market district on Saturdays and Sundays. The meters would be active from 7 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.

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A portion of that parking revenue would be used to create a fund to cover maintenance and improvement costs at the market, Cimperman said.

Again, an innovative win-win for the emporium of edibles and the entrepreneurs who staff the stands.

Other options - such as more Bike Boxes and a partnership still under consideration between the Greater Cleveland Regional Transit Authority and local businesses to help subsidize monthly RTA passes for the 4,000-plus employees who work in the market district - are positive steps in creating a greener city.

A public meeting to discuss the parking recommendations is scheduled for 6 p.m. Tuesday, July 7, at Franklin Circle Christian Church, 1688 Fulton Road, in Cleveland, Cimperman said.

In conjunction with the parking initiatives, there also are some welcome operational changes in the works.

As the landlord, the city can tweak the days and hours the market is open in the leases it signs with vendors. The changes under discussion, according to Cimperman, include expanding the days the market is open from four days - Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday - to five days by adding Sunday to the mix.

Sunday, Cimperman said, is the busiest grocery-shopping day of the week.

Also on the table are possible expanded hours on Wednesdays to keep the market open until 9 p.m., Cimperman said.

The expanded hours and days of the week when the market is open seem like a no-brainer: They increase access for customers and offer a competitive, cost-effective and healthy alternative to supermarket chains.

Another potentially palate-pleasing attraction would involve the consumption of beer and wine on the premises. Cimperman said he has been talking to Mayor Frank Jackson about converting the market into an open-container space that would permit sip-and-shop.

None of these operational changes would occur before January 1 when the current lease expires. Vendors should embrace them.

"Inertia is not acceptable," Cimperman said. He's right.

Cleveland awaits the West Side Market 2.0.