Talk about government intervention in the marketplace. Eastern Market, a 130-year-old D.C. landmark that unfortunately burned down two years ago, reopened today to much fanfare. The project to restore the public farmer’s market cost $22 million, including $2 million from the Commerce Department — earmarked by Delegate Eleanor Holmes Norton — and about half a million from private donations. The rest (about $20 million) was appropriated by the D.C. council from the annual budget.
Councilman Tommy Wells, who represents Ward 6, where the market is located, thanked the community at the ceremony this morning: “You showed the country how government can work.” The critical government work included installing bathrooms, new air conditioning and heating systems, and a new pottery studio, all of which were met with applause from the crowd. I asked D.C. Mayor Adrian Fenty how much his donation to the cause was. “My donation is that I’m gonna buy some peaches from this vendor here,” he said.
Congressman John Campbell (R., Calif.) was a big opponent of federal funding for the Eastern Market restoration. “The idea that taxpayer dollars are being used for a local market with no connection to the federal government is ridiculous,” his office said in a statement. “This is outside the federal nexus and should not have been funded.” Check out Campbell’s blog post on the issue, in which he recounts a similar scenario from nearly 200 years ago involving Congressman David Crockett.
— Michael Warren, a Collegiate Network intern at National Review, studies economics and history at Vanderbilt University.