The Portland Phoenix has proposed a system for ranking applicants for open slots at the farmers market.
The idea would be that, upon the opening of a slot at one of the markets, every applicant would be scored according to this chart (or whatever this chart is revised into). The highest-scoring vendor would be first admitted. If there were more than one slot available, then the slots would be assigned based on score.
The problem is that both the Wednesday and Saturday markets have outgrown their spaces and short of moving them to other spaces (unlikely to happen), it is clear that there will alwa ya be a long waiting list for new vendors to get in.
As it is, the Wednesday market will most likely stretch all the way toTemple Street this year when it gets really busy starting in June!