New Outdoor Market on Southport Introduced to Residents

After getting an official green light from the Chicago Transit Authority, organizers with the Lakeview Chamber of Commerce held a preview event Saturday for the Low Line Market at Southport, the neighborhood's newest outdoor marketplace.

Saturday’s event featured a dessert potluck with sandwiches, snack and drinks, free to passersby. Held beneath the Southport ‘L’ tracks, the event was certainly “something small to kick off something big,” as its tagline suggested.

The Low Line Market, slated to start in June 2013, will be an outdoor space at the Southport Brown Line train station where roughly 16 venders will sell home-grown and homemade items. However, unlike a traditional farmers market, the Low Line Market will feature more unique goods.

“We’re talking handcrafted foods, artisan foods, things that have a lower distribution,” said Lakeview Chamber’s Executive Director Heather Way. “We did a lot of research around this… We found that (consumers are more interested) if we mixed it up with some specialty products, with things they cant get at a regular grocery store. Something like Aunt Bee’s homemade honey.”

“It’s one thing at a time… It doesn’t seem like anything that isn’t insurmountable. It’s just going to take time."

The new market all part of the Lakeview Chamber’s overall plan to construct a walkable market beneath the Brown Line train tracks from Southport Avenue to Paulina Street. And while the ‘Low Line’ is modeled after New York City’s famous High Line, getting the approval is taking some time.

Way says, up until a few months ago, she was meeting consistently for about a year with representatives from CTA to get the approvals necessary for a trail beneath the Brown Line train tracks. But recently Way shifted gears to focus on getting the market at the Southport stop approved, so the Low Line was put on the back burner.

“It’s one thing at a time,” Way said. “…It doesn’t seem like anything that isn’t insurmountable. It’s just going to take time. Even after a year of discussions and showing (CTA representatives) drawings, they haven’t given us a full green light to do anything, but they get it and they haven’t said no. It’s just a matter of safety.”

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Until she gets a second green light from the CTA, Way and her team at the Lakeview Chamber are focusing on the new artisan-style market at the Southport ‘L’ station. However, even while promoting the marketplace, they’re not losing focus of the big picture.

“Our focus now is to get people acclimated to being around the train and experiencing things that happen in urban settings, but right next to the train,” said Way. “So, when people have to start walking under the train, it’s not as big of a shock.”

The Low Line Marketplace on Southport is scheduled to open mid-June in 2013, running every Thursday between 3-8 p.m. until mid-October. 

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