PRODUCE
MARKET
The entire fresh produce industry was dealt a blow
with the news coverage of the conditions present
at the 7th St. Produce Market. This
extremely negative report aired several times
including one time on NBC’s “Dateline”. We at the
City Market are receiving the fall out from this
report, though we were definitely NOT the subject
of the report.
As a result of this negative media blitz, the Los
Angeles County Health Department sent a task force
of approximately 20 employees. The individuals
with whom I spoke had no prior experience in the
wholesale produce market to inspect the premises
for any and all health code violations. On their
very first visit, this task force felt compelled
to actually close eight of our merchants for up to
48 hours. To my knowledge, not one merchant in
our Market has been closed for purported health
code violations in the nearly one hundred year
history of our Market. NEVER. All merchants
returned to full operation within two days upon
re-inspection.
Our merchants are among the finest produce men and
women in the world. Our level of cooperation with
the authorities is without equal in the industry,
in each and every case. On a regular basis, the
health officer assigned to the Market would make
recommendations for improvement to the merchants
and sometimes to the facilities management if he
noted a violation or an area of concern. Any
violation would be rectified immediately. We run a
“tight ship” at the 9th Street Market.
Is there room for improvement? Of course. We
appreciate an active program of review by the
Health authorities in the spirit of making things
better for farmers, wholesalers and consumers; and
welcome their efforts to this end.
DEVELOPMENT
NEWS
We have been hard at work remodeling two of our
properties for the garment trade. The first one
was a rehab of the old “Nuts to You” space at 9th
and San Pedro Street. That space was divided into
two separate units with disabled accessible
restrooms and new lighting and the whole building
is sporting a new paint job.
Secondly, we re-vamped 1101 S. San Pedro Street
(Ironically it was also the home of a nut roaster,
Gilbert Nut Co. years ago). This two story
building now is divided into 6 units, all
handicapped accessible. The original interior was
restored by sandblasting and the new partition
walls are painted white. The second story
interior was also fully sandblasted and fitted
with new double paned windows. We have not as yet
identified user(s) for this space.
Finally we have
begun construction of our brad new 12th
Street Garment Collection, a single story garment
center on 12th Street between San Pedro
and San Julian St. . This project has been
designed with a solar array on the roof which
should help defray a lot of the cost of
electricity. This will be the first commercial
building in downtown to sport a renewable energy
source.
Those
interested in obtaining space in any of our
projects should drop us a note or send an E-mail.
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