Farmer's Market tarps gone

[MarkD]

I don't think anyone gives much of a hoot about DeLaCruz, who is still bringing in rental income. (Maybe he lost a few vendors. Poor guy.) The losers are:

1) The vendors, who have to go through much more hassle to set up and take down. Saturday worked OK at the Market. Sunny day. Wait till we get a day of heavy rain. How do you think their sales will be? (No matter how heavy it rained before, once you got under the big tents you were good.)

2) Downtown, indeed all of Hilo. Neither is overflowing with visitor attractions. Certainly we have some, but face it, our urban community is rather ordinary, and that is being charitable.

Tourists cross the street from the Market to check out the ocean; what do they see? A beach with a highway on top of it, a fence blocking coastal access and our renowned bandstand filled with Hilo's unemployed sprawled out in various stages of intoxication.

Hilo is hardly in a position to erode/downgrade any of its (few) attributes, particularly the Farmers Market.