CLS affiliate faculty member Alfonso Morales shared his expertise on urban markets with the online news outlet Madison365 late this semester, providing perspective on the approaching debut of the Madison Public Market at 202 North First Street. A much-awaited addition to the commercial landscape in Madison, the Public Market is a city-sponsored nonprofit intended to create an inclusive gathering space where local vendors will sell diverse hand-crafted foods, craft items, and other goods. The idea has always been that the Market should help entrepreneurs get their small business off the ground. However, Madison365 reported that many of the vendors scheduled to occupy the Market have faced high buildout costs and requirement that they use electrical and plumbing contractors approved by the market. Is this typical of such markets? It’s hard to tell, Morales noted, because public markets are not a new phenomenon and not standardized. Still, he suggested that he “would have to stop and think for a while to think of a market that doesn’t do everything in advance of the vendors, and then build the cost into the market, whether it’s mission driven or otherwise … They set up a turnkey operation.”
Research by Prof. Morales and his colleague Edna Ely-Ledesma, also a CLS affiliate faculty member, was also featured in the May 10th issue of “Fueling Discovery,” a supplement to the Wisconsin State Journal that highlights research by UW-Madison faculty. In the piece, Morales describes the way he and his colleagues are using data to document the effects of farmers markets on local economies and help to improve access to healthy food in communities all over the state.