Market still has a place in their hearts

Some years ago, Pat and Mike Donler spent $35 on a terra cotta tile that was to be put down at the Spokane Marketplace. So did King Cole. And Roma Sinn. And the Romberg family. Their names were carefully etched into the tiles, permanently showing their support for the marketplace.

Close to 900 tiles were sold over the years – some were installed in the various buildings the marketplace occupied – but about 400 tiles are sitting in Lenny Munguia’s garage.

Munguia was involved with the Spokane Marketplace for more than a decade, and the last time the market lost its home (on Washington Street, in a building on the outskirts of Riverfront Park), Munguia says, the tiles were going to be thrown out.

“I didn’t think that was right,” he says, “so I took them home with me.”

And there they sit, still homeless, just like the market they were bought to support.

A couple of weeks ago, I wrote a column about how much I miss a year-round marketplace. More than 30 e-mails piled into my inbox in response.

That was great, but to me the question quickly became: What to do with all of these people? And then, would any of them actually step up to the plate and work on a year-round market?

So I e-mailed everyone back, adding a few developer types and a city employee to the mailing list, and offered to set up an informal coffee meeting.

On Thursday morning, a dozen people crowded around the big steel table at The Shop, a coffeehouse on South Perry Street. Chairs were pulled up, coffee was ordered, bagels were toasted and as the morning sun began blinding half of us, shining through the big windows in the old garage doors, people got acquainted.

Group members eyed one another in a friendly yet cautious manner.

Jackie Rappe was there. She was involved with, or president of, the Spokane Marketplace for 16 years – from the early days when dignitaries like U.S. Speaker of the House Tom Foley showed up to have their pictures taken at the new market, through the last years where Rappe often faced strong criticism as vendors and customers grew frustrated with the flailing market.

Dave Sanders, community coordinator at the Community Building downtown, was there, too, as was Sandy Tarbox, owner of Greencastle Soap. And Munguia, who parks his mobile burrito trailer “Jalapeno Jeaven” in The Shop’s parking lot every weekday morning. Lori Kinnear brought a business plan for a farmers market she’d written for the Northeast Community Center four years ago.

I’d be lying if I told you there was no tension in the air.

There was at least one of those suspense-filled moments where, if this were a movie, all you would hear would be crickets and maybe a dog howling in the distance.

The old marketplace went through turbulent times before it dissolved. Egos collided and conflict festered. Bridges were burned, doors were slammed, plans were dumped and names were called. Volunteer board work tends to fertilize people’s egos. Let me tell you, March Madness is nothing compared with the madness that grips some volunteers once they gain a title.

Yet, there we were.

People did agree on one thing: The potential to support a predominantly indoor, year-round marketplace is here.

Then people agreed on another thing: Nothing is going to happen without a solid organization, with rules that are the same for everyone and 501(c)3 nonprofit status.

Finally, people agreed on one last thing: It’s not going to be easy.

With a history of stops and starts, unfulfilled promises and fights, the Spokane Marketplace has a bit of an image problem.

But let me tell you, there were a bunch of talented and committed people around that table Thursday morning, and most of them told me they left the meeting with a good feeling about the future.