By OLIVER MACK
Courtesy of Ethan Pham
City officials shut down a flea market on College Park’s City Hall plaza in March after it had operated for nearly a year.
University of Maryland (UMD) alumnus Ethan Pham, who graduated in 2024, started the market, CP Flea, last May in collaboration with Shop Made in Maryland, a store on the street level of City Hall that sells local art and goods. The year-round market grew to host more than a dozen vendors every other Saturday evening before the city evicted it.
College Park City Manager Kenny Young cited Pham’s lack of permission as the main reason for shutting down the market. He also said vendors were driving their cars on the plaza, where the owners of street-level businesses complained the market blocked their stores and created parking and traffic issues on Knox Road.
“From the city’s point of view, it’s a pretty simple issue for us: They were operating on the City Hall plaza without permission,” Young said. “We can create whatever atmosphere we’d like on the plaza. Not sure that a flea market is kind of what we were looking for there.”
The shutdown was the first time Pham or the Shop Made in Maryland staff had been made aware of any issues, Pham said.
“It just felt completely out of left field, like, I had no idea this was coming,” Pham said. “Shop Made in Maryland and I have been working together to do this market for nearly a year now with no issues.”
Pham started selling clothes out of his apartment during his sophomore year at UMD in 2022. By his senior year, he had been put in touch with the owner of Shop Made in Maryland, who helped him start the market, Pham said. As time went on, Pham began to lead the project more, with the shop taking a back seat, store manager Gabrielle Brinkhoff said.
City Hall and the plaza are owned by three entities: the city, UMD and Terrapin Development Co. One of them has to sponsor any events on the plaza, Young said.
Shop Made in Maryland had received permission to host events from Terrapin Development Co., Brinkhoff said. But the assistant city manager, Bill Gardiner, came into the store frustrated one day after seeing a flier for the flea market, Brinkhoff said.
Brinkhoff said this triggered a review of the market by the owners of the plaza. Terrapin Development Co. authorities said CP Flea was within code, and the city said it wasn’t, Brinkhoff said.
Young said the development company had given permission, but only to Shop Made in Maryland’s vendors, which do not include CP Flea.
Pham pled his case at a College Park City Council meeting April 1 and said he has contacted the city multiple times in an effort to work on a solution. He also collected 320 signatures from backers on a petition and published videos on social media to drum up support.
“It’s not like I wanted to come to this in any adversarial way, but it seems like [city officials] might have took it as such,” Pham said. “That wasn’t a message I was trying to put across. I think it’s just miscommunication, and that’s why I wanted more than anything, to, like, have a discussion face to face or over the phone.”
Young said he “could care less” about the social media campaign to bring the market back, saying Pham is circulating “false information” about the reason the city shut down the outdoor shop.
“It’s a private space, and so as owners, we have the ability to allow events to happen there and not happen there,” Young said. “We’re hoping they can find something elsewhere within College Park.”
Ashley Trang, a charm purse artist and frequent vendor at the market, said CP Flea helped grow her business, meet other artists in the community and receive feedback about her products.
“When I first heard about this, I just, like, couldn’t believe it,” Trang said. “It’s kind of like College Park taking this opportunity away from students who want to do entrepreneurship but not on a high level.”
Pham said he is looking for other possible locations to host the market, and added the plaza is an ideal location to connect College Park residents with UMD students, faculty and staff.
Brinkhoff said the shutdown was “really unfortunate because [CP Flea] is a great way to build community.”
“The turnout for [CP Flea] was always something really special,” Brinkhoff said. “I know that not even just the students, but people who’ve been living in the area for decades, were really enjoying something happening. It’s really frustrating to not be able to continue with that.”
