An alert reader of yesterday's post on the new "home" for Saturday Market -- I hear they've scheduled Jack Kevorkian to cut the ribbon next spring -- points out that it's up for discussion again at a Parks Board meeting at City Hall tomorrow morning. This confab starts at 7:30 a.m. As ever, the public is invited to speak -- not.

The alert reader, who like many is distressed at the bad direction in which the city's parks are careening, offers these additional thoughts:

Interestingly, part of effort to move the market is to make the north end of the waterfront less hospitable to the riffraff that now collects down there. The city is requiring PPR to take this on and they do not want it. Robin Grimwade [imported parks privatization honcho] says that the rate the market has been paying [in rent] is decades old and PPR would not grandfather in a below-market rate. Clearly the vendors will not be able to afford the new rate. And there won't be room for all the current vendors in the new market, so the remaining ones will shoulder more of the burden. Because no one from the market has sat on the committee, there is no sense of what might even be possible in a deal between the vendors and the City. How is it that PPR always informs the people most affected by their bumbling last? Show me a better way to build mistrust. Oh, and the vendors need to all have the same type booth and maybe a dress code, too...

Oh, and there is that large water fountain feature [in honor of Bill Naito] that the Naito family is insisting be built with city dollars or they won't donate the land in Old Town for the development.

So the city told Parks: We'll put the market across the street on that flat part with the anchor. Well, it isn't flat and so, much money must be spent to make a flat surface. But nothing permanent, because in three years the market is gone. And when someone at the board meeting brought up moving it to the east side with access from the Esplanade, it was not to be discussed. I'm not certain what to make of that exactly, but we'll hear more talk tomorrow. Not about that, of course. The plebeians are not allowed to speak at the board meetings. Funny, a board member came to one of the [Mount Tabor] mediations and then commented how disturbing it was to see such a large group of park supporters feeling so disenfranchised. Being able to speak at a board meeting would do wonders to change that. Oh, I forgot, they are already representing us. It says here on the website:

"The Board serves as an advocate for parks and recreation in city infrastructure, provides a forum for public involvement and decision making about major park policy issues, and brings a citywide and long-term perspective to neighborhood-based issues."