{"id":574070,"date":"2026-04-01T01:05:11","date_gmt":"2026-04-01T01:05:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/574070\/"},"modified":"2026-04-01T01:05:11","modified_gmt":"2026-04-01T01:05:11","slug":"edmonton-old-strathcona-farmers-market-lost-half-of-its-customers-due-to-paid-parking","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/574070\/","title":{"rendered":"Edmonton Old Strathcona Farmers\u2019 Market lost half of its customers due to paid parking"},"content":{"rendered":"

One of Edmonton\u2019s best-known farmers\u2019 markets, the Old Strathcona Farmers\u2019 Market usually gets around 1,100 visitors on weekends; however, the market saw a huge drop in number when the City of Edmonton started charging for parking in an empty lot beside the market\u2019s building.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019d like to say it\u2019s 50 per cent. Our numbers have declined quite a bit,\u201d said Corinne Olson, market manager of the Old Strathcona Farmers\u2019 Market. \u201cWe record these folks that come through the market with counters.\u201d<\/p>\n

Last year, the City changed the free weekend parking to paid parking. It can cost drivers up to $10 per day. A year later, the City\u2019s quest to make parking more expensive is keeping customers away.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have customers who come here who do not have the technology. Do not have the app to use the QR codes. There are a lot of seniors who support us, who come to see their favourite vendor,\u201d said Olson.<\/p>\n

\"\"Corinne Olson (Left), market manager of the Old Strathcona Farmers\u2019 Market. (Leo Cruzat, CityNews)<\/p>\n

Area city councillor Michael Janz voted to charge for parking instead of letting customers get a free ride. He claims money from those who drive to the market stays with the market. He thinks that\u2019s not right. Janz wants parking revenue to be spread to other city projects.<\/p>\n

\u201cNo private business should get the revenue from the City parking, that\u2019s unfairly giving public money to a private business,\u201d said Janz.<\/p>\n

Those who run the Old Strathcona Farmers\u2019 Market hope the city will reconsider its pay-to-park plan.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m not looking to take away from them, but maybe there\u2019s something that we could work out together so it\u2019s a win-win,\u201d said Olson.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"One of Edmonton\u2019s best-known farmers\u2019 markets, the Old Strathcona Farmers\u2019 Market usually gets around 1,100 visitors on weekends;…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":574071,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[194294],"tags":[49,48,23752],"class_list":{"0":"post-574070","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-edmonton","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-edmonton"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/574070","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=574070"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/574070\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/574071"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=574070"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=574070"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=574070"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}