San José Flea Market Advisory Group

In 2012, when work began on the BART extension to San José, it was all cheers. The plan, decades in the making, would bring BART to a San José, landing at a 100-acre flea market site. The problem: one person’s empty field is another’s livelihood. The Berryessa Flea Market has been an economic cultural institution for low-income communities for generations (including the family of one of our CPC staff). Vendors rent by the month and have onsite storage and facilities, meaning they can operate businesses – real businesses that paid for houses and colleges for hundreds of low-income families. In fact, after being sidelined in discussions about the future, vendors were so concerned they launched a hunger strike at City Hall. Long story short, the vendors won. They were promised $7.5 million to help them buy a new site, transition to brick and mortar locations, or relocate; as well as a 5- acre urban market on the project site. But with victory comes process.

Community Planning Collaborative was selected by the City of San José to assist engagement with market vendors and other stakeholders, explaining the process and building consensus on how to move forward. With hundreds of vendors and more opinions than that, we set to work at the market, at meetings, on-line, and on the phone - all in four languages.

Starting in late 2022, we built support for a charter. Once complete, our work was expanded to facilitate the Advisory Group and the formal process began. Since May 2023, we have been facilitating public, multilingual Advisory Group meetings. The transformation has been amazing - from protests and a hunger strike to working together, hand in hand, with the City. The future is still not clear, there are many hurdles to buying a new site, but there is a path forward and the City and the community are walking it together.

More information, including overview of the process to date and engagement summaries, can be found on the Berryessa Flea Market Advisory Group website.