And while Councilor Willoughby is in the politically unenviable position of having to sweat fever for BEL - he should have been sweating bullets today when he had to address the vendors at the Michael Finnegan market. Those meetings are always contentious - and after a murder last week - this one was no different. But Willoughby had a clever plan: he nicely sat them down under a tent and pitched proposal to bring everyone in. It succeeded partially because of the setting and partially because he didn't discuss prices.
Here's how it went:…
Jules Vasquez Reporting
Councilor Phillip Willoughby braved an audience of market vendors to explain his plan for the market where there's always been contention and now there's been a murder.
Too often wary, argumentative vendors he proposed a big tent solution to bring all the retailers inside.
Phillip Willoughby
"The plan will be that all the retailers on the canal side will now be made to utilize all available space on the interior of the Michael Finnegan market. They will be provided with, a space to operate with a covering and a booth to operate from."
Jules Vasquez
"You manage the market, you could have put these people in here long ago but instead you all waited for a crisis to occur. A man life was lost blamelessly and now you want to come with a magic wand."
Phillip Willoughby
"Unfortunately, an unfortunate incident occurred or transpired. My condolences to the family, but it weren't because of that incident. Since the mayor gave me the responsibilities for the market, and even prior to that, we've been working on this market situation. It has come to this point now, maybe after the fact but we are still working and continue to be a working progress to ensure that all vendors are provided a space to operate from within the market and their safety is priority of the council."
Jules Vasquez
"Now the second issue of that arise, the reason the market was rebuilt and remodel, was to create a sense of splendor rather than a sense of squalor. If you bring in everyone here and they simply, scattered about, the aesthetics of the place will immediately go down. So are you down creating squallier out of this brand new Michael Finnegan market and if that's the case, why didn't you all build it for the right capacity in the first place?"
Phillip Willoughby
"And again Jules, the engineer as you are my friend, the local building authority will be supervising the construction of these stalls that will create the uniformity and the co-existence of both the external retailers and the internal retailers. So there won't be ever a situation that you will have the squallow and the squalor. Everything will be done in a responsible, professional manner, and the vendors will be provided with a stall to vend from."
Jules Vasquez
"Why weren't they provided when the place was first built? Why wasn't it built for the capacity that it needs?"
Phillip Willoughby
"That discussion will have to be with SIF."
But, SIF is long gone and after an hour long back and forth Willoughby appears to have won the retail vendors over - importantly, without announcing any prices - so that may be a temporary win. But what is enduring is the rivalry between these retailers and the wholesalers on the street - who compete at the retail level.
That divide is still there, but Willoughby won the grudging support of the retailers today and there was no shortage of self-congratulation:
Phillip Willoughby
"What Phillip Willoughby has done today, has won the hearts of the retailers and all those how vendor in the market, you understand, would that be acceptable? Based on what you saw?"
Jules Vasquez
"You interprit me?"
Phillip Willoughby
"Well my friend, it is here, you could say otherwise. They are the ones who have problem with the wholesales. So it would be our good retailers along with the council who will deal with the wholesalers if they operate illegally."
Today vendors lined up to give their names for the new stalls - but will there be enough space:
Phillip Willoughby
"As I said to the engineers in front of all the vendors, ensure that every available space in the Michael Finnegan market provides the opportunity for all the vendors that come here every day of the week including weekends."
Willoughby says he expects the plan to be in effect by the first week in April…
