Show up at the Ed Hales Park lot at ten o'clock this month expecting the market you remember and you'll catch the tail end of it. Tents are already coming down. Half the tables are bare. For years, Downtown's Morning Market ran until one in the afternoon, long enough to grab coffee, walk the whole row twice, and still make it home with strawberries before the heat set in. That market is gone. What's running now closes at eleven.
The city didn't cancel Saturday morning. It cut it by four hours, and the reason behind that cut says more about how Redlands is rethinking its downtown than any produce stand ever could.
What the City Council Actually Voted For
On May 19, 2026, the Redlands City Council voted to shrink Downtown's Morning Market's hours from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. down to 7 a.m. to 11 a.m., effective within about two weeks. The market has run that shorter schedule ever since, through its 2026 season that stretches from March 7 to November 21, skipping only the Fourth of July weekend, in the municipal lot off Redlands Boulevard between Fifth and Sixth streets next to Ed Hales Park.
Mayor Pro Tem Marc Shaw, who put the item on the agenda, framed it as a parking problem. The lot sits tied up from early morning until roughly two in the afternoon every Saturday once setup, the market itself, and teardown are all counted. City staff also flagged the overtime costs of recreation employees who put up and remove the protective barricades each week. Mayor Mario Saucedo went further during the meeting, arguing the market had drifted from its original purpose of supporting local growers and agriculture.
That argument gets harder to shrug off once you see the numbers behind it.
The Detail That Explains Everything
Here's the fact that reframes the whole story: of the roughly two dozen vendors who show up regularly, none are based in Redlands. They come from Mentone, from Highland, and some travel in from as far as Los Angeles County. The market that carries the city's name in its title, in the lot the city maintains, using barricades the city's own staff sets up on overtime, has been running almost entirely on out-of-town sellers.
Add the cost side and the council's math starts to make sense. The market runs the city roughly $93,000 a year, with about $70,000 of that subsidized directly by the city. That's real money going toward an event that a majority of nearby downtown businesses, according to the city's own survey, said had no measurable effect on their foot traffic, though about a third reported a genuine lift in visibility and customers.
So the shorter hours aren't really about parking. They're a signal that the city is questioning whether its flagship Saturday morning event still does what it was built to do, and whether someone else might do it better.
Where Everyone Actually Shops Now
The city is currently soliciting proposals for a third-party operator to take over management starting this fall, and it's weighing whether the market should move at all. City Manager Charles Duggan told the council staff would return with viable location options and operator proposals within a few months of the May vote. Sites floated so far include city property behind Hatfield Buick between Seventh and Ninth streets, land near the downtown parking structure, and Industrial Parkway.
The Redlands Chamber of Commerce has already raised its hand. Chamber board president Patrick Roskam told the council the organization would be interested in operating the market itself, pointing to other chambers, including Claremont's, that already run similar events. Roskam said the Chamber would consider both the current site and alternatives, with a stated goal of bringing in more actual local growers.
While the city sorts that out, Redlands residents have quietly split their Saturday and Sunday shopping across three separate markets that operate under three separate sets of rules:
| Market | Day and Hours | Location | What's There |
|---|---|---|---|
| Downtown's Morning Market | Saturdays, 7 to 11 a.m., through Nov. 21 | Municipal lot off Redlands Blvd between 5th and 6th, next to Ed Hales Park | Roughly two dozen rotating vendors selling produce, baked goods, and handmade goods |
| Grove School Farmers Market | Saturdays, 8 a.m. to noon | The Grove School's Iowa Street campus, with a planned move into Heritage Park across the street | Student-run booths, farm produce grown on campus, coffee, meat and fish, handmade goods |
| Sunday Morning Market at Olive Avenue | Sundays, 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. | Olive Avenue Market | Small businesses and local makers |
The Grove School's market picked up much of the slack last winter. When Downtown's Morning Market went on its usual seasonal hiatus after November 22, the school's own Saturday market, held on its farm campus, became the only certified farmers market operating in Redlands for the season. The school had announced plans to relocate that market across Iowa Street into Heritage Park sometime this spring, pending the electrical and restroom infrastructure a bigger crowd would need. If you haven't checked in on that move lately, it's worth a look before you plan your morning around the old address.
The Rest of Downtown Didn't Wait Around
While the city debates parking math on one block, private investment kept building a few blocks over. Redlands Public Market sits inside the restored 1890 Mutual Orange Company packing house, running more than twenty independent food and beverage stands alongside an outdoor courtyard, a farm stand, and a rotating lineup of live music and pop-up vendors. It draws people downtown on a schedule that has nothing to do with a 7 a.m. start time or a barricade budget.
That contrast is the real story here. The city's own agricultural market, the one built specifically to promote local farming, is shrinking under its own weight and cost. A few blocks away, a privately run food hall in a converted packing house keeps expanding its footprint without needing a council vote. Both are competing for the same limited parking and the same Saturday foot traffic downtown. Only one of them answers to a budget line.
The Short Version
If you're planning this weekend around the market you remember, here's what's actually true right now:
Downtown's Morning Market closes at 11, not 1, so get there before nine if you want first pick of what's left after the earliest vendors arrive.
If you want a longer morning or you're after produce that was actually grown nearby, the Grove School's market runs until noon and is worth checking for its Heritage Park move before you drive to the old Iowa Street lot.
If Saturday doesn't work, Olive Avenue Market runs its own Sunday market from 9 to 1, built around small businesses and makers rather than produce stands.
And if you're just after a longer, slower downtown morning with food and people-watching built in, Redlands Public Market runs on its own clock entirely, unaffected by any of this.
None of it requires a car full of groceries or a plan to move anywhere. It just requires knowing which Saturday you actually showed up to.
If a question like this ever turns into a bigger one, whether that's understanding what a changing downtown means for a home you already own here or one you're thinking about, Terri Barrett has spent nearly three decades paying attention to the details that make Redlands run. Schedule a Free Consultation whenever you're ready to talk through what you're seeing on the ground.
