A major brouhaha has erupted this spring in Overland Park, Kansas, over the expulsion of nearly a dozen longtime vendors from the popular local farmers market. Managers of the market, which is run by the Overland Park Downtown Partnership, have inexplicably refused to explain why the vendors were booted. It is equally inexplicable that the Kansas City Star, which has reported on the evictions from the market and the ensuing furor, hasn’t done a little bit of digging to get to the bottom of the story.
Anonymous commentators have been all too happy to fill the void with rumors and innuendo on invective-laced web forums.
The Star has reported that vendors who were told not to bother showing up at the market this year received termination letters in January which stated simply that “transition is necessary in order to meet the expectations and interests of today’s consumer.” Robin Fish, executive director of the partnership, has declined to offer further comment about the controversy, according to the Star. Paul Lyons, a member of the City Council who sits on the partnership’s board, has gone as far as to say that he “had an opinion about” the ousted vendors, but he has refused to say what that opinion might be.
The disinvited vendors haven’t been mum. They have picketed the market to protest their ouster. And they have told newspaper reporters that they believe they were kicked out because they refused to succumb to pressure from market managers to raise their prices -- demands that they said were illegal....
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http://trulylocal.typepad.com/truly_local/2010/05/have-commies-taken-over-a-farmers-market-in-kansas.html
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