Since the original operator folded, who has been running the Farmers Market in the interim?

Raw Inspirations has been running the market since mid-October.

Why is the South Pasadena Chamber of Commerce interested in running the Farmers Market?

The Chamber wants to keep the market local. We think that a Farmers’ Market run by the Chamber benefit from our roots in the community. For instance, we’ll work hard to complement neighboring businesses and restaurants, not compete. We’ll extend connectivity with the public schools through gardening programs, fundraising efforts and community service hour opportunities. And we’ll open up the Market to become a virtual town square for Green ideas by highlighting City and Community outreach on sustainability.

We’re also interested in ploughing proceeds from an effective Farmers’ Market back into the community by promoting the market as well as the community.

What, if anything, would the Chamber like to improve in the Farmers Market?

The Chamber hopes to expand the produce and agricultural offerings, especially in the organic arena. We want to retain the festive environment and the food because families and friends love it. But we think it has perhaps become a bit too much of a food court over the years, and not enough of a mecca for foodies and healthy living devotees.

We’d also like to see the Market become a gathering spot and an idea exchange. This is why we’ve made inroads with PCC, USC, California School Gardens Network and others to prepare the “Environmentality Tents” where new ideas and green living products and services can be introduced.

Finally, we’d like to offer local business people a spot in the Market. The Farmers are essentially guests for a day on the local business doorstep. Yet they pay no local sales tax, property tax or Business Improvement Tax, or any of the freight that local merchants do. So we hope that operators who want to take an evening away from their usual storefront and set up a tent to talk to the Farmers’ Market patrons will do so.

What kind of timeline are you looking at for this application process? Is there another step if you get approval from the citizens committee?

We made the first cut for interviews, so we’ll do that on April 1, alongside two others. After that there are negotiations, and a public meeting at City Council. Whoever is selected will probably assume control of the Market — or retain control of it as the case may be — starting in May 2010.

• In an obit for Frisbee inventor Walter Frederick Morrison, the San Gabriel Valley Tribune mentions in passing that WHAM-O began in a South Pasadena garage. Maybe you already knew that but, well, I didn’t.
• The L.A. Times says, “Today, Stargate (Studios) generates $15 million in annual revenue and employs 150 digital artists, producers and technicians.”
• The Crescenta Valley Weekly posted a fun correction, which looks like it might have been prompted by a call from the South Pas mayor’s office.
• Food, She Thought posts oodles of photos from a meal at Shiro.
• In an aptly titled post, The South Pasadena Chamber of Commerce asks what you think of Claremont’s revitalization.

If you’re into yoga, Mission Street Yoga is having an open house this weekend, which includes some free classes. You can grab all the details here.

Mission Madness continues. Hot on the heels of Cruz’n for Roses and the Mission West Fall Street Art Festival, this Saturday we’ll see the return of ArtsFest. You can find the evening’s schedule here.

Videotheque hopes to make the move in October.

• South Pas fashion designer Richard Tyler decided the best way for Scientologists to overcome their sinister image is to have them wear black capes and sorting hats.
• Our firefighters were among those battling the blaze off the 134.
• Us and them: “I think the people of El Sereno should pay attention to their own community. We’ll pay attention to ours.”
• Black and white: “In a six-month period, I was stopped three times in a tony, South Pasadena neighborhood in 1988 by the same officer who made me, clad in my best ‘Carlton Banks’ outfit (white button down, yellow sweater, khakis and penny loafers), sit on a curb while he ran my driver’s license … ALL THREE TIMES.”
• One man’s fight for a little peace and quiet.
• Driving home on the 110 might get a little easier once a “dynamic-lane” system is installed.

• Inside Private Lives extends its run at the Fremont Centre Theatre, which pushes the production past the one-year mark in South Pas.
• Pasadena Unified School District might try and follow South Pasadena’s lead and push for a parcel tax. The district is facing a $14 million deficit. The question is whether a city as large and diverse as Pasadena can garner the two-thirds votes necessary to pass the tax in a special election.
• Speaking of the parcel tax, and not to belabor the point, but the South Pasadena Review has yet to post the results of Measure S on its site.
• The South Pasadena Educational Foundation’s Summer School program is bucking the state trend and offering some classes.