Exploring Detroit's Energizing Eastern Market
Part 1 of a series about the food hub and its role in the city's economic revival
Detroit’s Iconic Eastern Market Set to Grow: Part 1
I have been a bit in awe of Detroit’s Eastern Market for years. Before this weekend, my only visit was in 2015 on a field trip for FamilyFarmed. I witnessed the Saturday public market that — according to Dan Carmody, longtime CEO of the non-profit Eastern Market Corporation — draws 40,000 people each week, and was taken by the vitality and economic impact in what then was a struggling city plagued with decline.
I’d been contemplating another visit (a first since I launched Local Food Forum), when Dan contacted me to explore my interest in writing about the visionary plan for a major expansion of the Eastern Market District. The strategic plan is designed to grow Detroit’s food business sector, create more jobs and entrepreneurial opportunities for the city’s under-served populations, and revitalize formerly intact residential neighborhoods that today are composed mainly of vacant lots.
The scope of the plan is such that I determined it necessary to visit to get a full grasp. So I took a quick trip to Detroit and came away more impressed than ever. My successful Saturday enabled me to set aside a bizarre air travel adventure on Friday that turned what should have been a non-stop flight of an hour or less from Chicago into a 10-hour ordeal that included an hours-long diversion to Cleveland (more about this tomorrow).
I’ll need a couple of days to digest everything I learned during my whirlwind trip, so details to come later this week. But I wanted to set the stage with just some of the many photos I took in and around the market. Then keep scrolling for this week’s regional farmers market schedule.
Eastern Market is this close to Detroit’s downtown, which in recent years has enjoyed a major revival, though it is physically separated by one of the city’s many expressways. The white building in the background (behind the trucks) is Ford Field, home of the NFL’s Detroit Lions.
Dan Carmody describes Eastern Market as a public market rather than a farmers market because vendors are permitted to sell non-local produce, which includes items that are out of season in Detroit’s growing region as well as produce, such as bananas and pineapples, that are not grown in the region. But during this peak local season, most tables are overflowing with produce from Michigan and parts of Ohio and Ontario.
Eastern Market began its existence as Detroit’s premier wholesale food center in the late 19th century, and the area immediately surrounding the core market filled up with wholesale companies, distributors and food processing plants. Many of the buildings became rundown and graffiti-covered during the city’s long economic decline, presenting the Market District with an image of urban decay.
Under Dan’s leadership, though, the industrial landscape was freshened with dozens of striking murals created by local artists, and the streets surrounding the market now are interspersed with traditional food businesses, restaurants, craft breweries, a distillery, art galleries and other entertainment and cultural enterprises.
More coming soon.
It’s nice to see pictures of Eastern Market, where I have many happy memories with my mother and grandfather