Seaside and PG debate their own farmers markets.

Cars zip by on Reservation Road as a woman stands and greets a customer looking at her homemade jewelry. At a nearby booth, a man sells fresh tomatoes and giant avocados. It’s a Sunday scene in Marina—locals strolling from table to table, picking out the best produce, eating kettle korn and looking after their kids at the farmers market.

Marina’s is one of three newer farmers market in the county. Two other peninsula cities, Pacific Grove and Seaside, may soon follow suit. In early November, the PG Planning Commission will consider a weekly farmers market. Seaside officials, on the other hand, say they’ll take a wait-and-see approach.

“If there is community support and people to facilitate a farmers market, than [Seaside] would be willing to host one,” says Jill Anderson, Seaside’s associate city manager. “But the city will not support it alone.”

The last time Seaside hosted a farmers market was 1992. It opened on west Broadway Avenue, selling produce, baked items and handmade crafts. Two years later, it fizzled out when local business owners complained about losing money after the street shut down on Sunday afternoons. City officials struggled to no avail to keep the market afloat by moving it to other locations.

Fifteen years later, there is a revived interest in a market. Joe Aliotti and Iris Peppard run successful farmers markets in other local cities. Both say they would like to start one in Seaside, as would resident Stacy Smith.

According to the city officials, possible locations include the intersection at Broadway Avenue and Terrace Street, the parking lot at Kragen Auto Parts and the stretch of west Broadway Avenue where the original event was held.

“Markets are the backbone of many communities in the state,” says Aliotti, who runs farmers markets in north and south Salinas. “What city would not want a weekly event to gather at, socialize and shop?”

In Salinas, the markets are still young: Oldtown has had one for two years, while north Salinas only started in July. But Aliotti says they already have filled voids in the city. “I’m using the farmers market as a positive first step in the community,” he says. “Doing a market in south Salinas was like bringing Disneyland to the area.”

Meanwhile, Iris Peppard, manager of the Marina Farmers Market, has other ideas for a Seaside market. Although she agrees the city needs an event to bring the community together, Peppard sees the market as a means to help low-income citizens. “All people have the right to access local, organic produce,” Peppard says.

Marina’s is the only market in the county that uses electronic food stamps every week, a service Peppard hopes to bring to Seaside. “They have a larger population of low-income families,” she says, “that would help produce customers for a market in Seaside.”

But in Monterey County, various places put on farmers markets throughout the week.

Jackie Lambert, executive director of the Seaside Chamber of Commerce, was a huge fan of the first market in 1992. But now, she says, the city does not need one.

“With so many farmers markets out there, is there really a need for [Seaside] to have one as well?” she asks.