Everyone wants to see the Santa Barbara Public Market succeed, even those lining up to escape it.
After one full year of business, all 11 of the market’s independent merchants still admire the ambitious commercial concept — one of the biggest and most expensive in city history — and hope desperately to make it work. The high-ceilinged Victoria Street space just off downtown's main drag is packed with vendors selling all manner of gourmet food. There's a butcher and a fishmonger, a bread baker and a juicer, as well as purveyors of cheese, olive oil, and produce.
But five of those tenants are so dejected by how things are going and feel so mistreated by property owner and developer Marge Cafarelli that they’ve banded together in protest and retained an attorney to weigh their legal options.