FERGUSON – Bridgette Gordon-Billingsley sells her beauty products at the Ferguson Farmers Market. She lives in the Old Jamestown area of north St. Louis County, but she lived in Ferguson for about eight years, until 2014. Though Billingsley continues to sell her products at the market, there’s a huge change in the tone of her experience there compared with what it was before the shooting of Michael Brown (and its aftermath) took place that year.
“The market, pre-Mike Brown, was just good times. There was a lot of tra\c, and it was busy,” she said. “Post Mike Brown, it wasn’t the same vibe.”
The Ferguson Farmers Market is held every Saturday on South Florissant Road, in an area less than 10 minutes away from West Florissant Avenue and, more speci`cally, the Can`eld Green apartments, where Brown was shot on Aug. 9th, 2014. Five years later, there’s a clear divide between the two areas that lingers as they continue to rebuild what was lost `ve years ago.