Riverside Market

Dwarfed by warehouse supermarkets and threatened by shrinking profits, it was the little market that could. Now it can't. Riverside Market, a landmark grocery store that has stood at the same North Hollywood intersection for more than 40 years, will close early next month because the property is being sold to a developer who may replace it with a retail center containing a bank, gift shop and real estate brokerage firm.

Dwarfed by modern supermarkets and threatened by shrinking profits, it was the little market that could. Now it can't. Riverside Market, which has stood at the same North Hollywood intersection for more than 40 years, will close early next month. The property is being sold to a developer who may replace it with a retail center containing a bank, gift shop and real estate brokerage firm.

Dwarfed by modern supermarkets and threatened by shrinking profits, it was the little market that could. Now it can't. Riverside Market, which has stood at the same North Hollywood intersection for more than 40 years, will close early next month. The property is being sold to a developer who may replace it with a retail center containing a bank, gift shop and real estate brokerage firm.

Dwarfed by warehouse supermarkets and threatened by shrinking profits, it was the little market that could. Now it can't. Riverside Market, a landmark grocery store that has stood at the same North Hollywood intersection for more than 40 years, will close early next month because the property is being sold to a developer who may replace it with a retail center containing a bank, gift shop and real estate brokerage firm.

Grocery store owner Vic Damus Sr.--who founded the landmark Riverside Market, a popular neighborhood store that stood at the same North Hollywood intersection for more than 40 years before being forced to close last month--died Friday after a 25-year bout with leukemia. He was 70. Damus died at Good Samaritan Hospital at 6 a.m. Friday, said one of his sons, Mike Damus, 33.

Riverside wants a more upscale image, but is getting little help from the Banana Republics of the world. The city badly wants to lure higher-end shops and restaurants to the area, including Crate and Barrel, Restoration Hardware and P.F. Chang's, but has found the effort to be a tough sell. Those retailers depend on market studies when deciding where to open shops, and Riverside rarely makes the cut.

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Although smaller than Riverside's better-known Friday morning market, its Wednesday evening market--held across from the Mission Inn--boasts several distinctive farmers from the region. Last week Leslie Dellaro, a local backyard grower, sold splendid organic heirloom tomatoes, including rich-flavored, reddish-brown Black Krim, which originated in the Crimea; mild Caspian Pink; and German Johnson, a low-acid type from Virginia.

Riverside's Friday morning farmers market is the oldest, the largest and arguably the best in the Inland Empire. A lively social event, it features many local growers and not much dross. Luther and Eliza Tibbets planted California's first Washington navel orange trees in 1873 a few blocks east of the market's site, and the large, seedless fruits formed the basis of the state's citrus industry. The Riverside district still grows the finest examples, which abounded at last Friday's market.

WASHINGTON - For homeowners who were looking to the federal government's reverse mortgage program to supply lots of cash for their retirement years, here's a heads-up: The pipeline just got narrower. Pressed by Congress to slash losses, the Federal Housing Administration recently outlined a series of steps designed to limit the maximum amounts that seniors can draw down on their homes and to make qualifying for a reverse mortgage tougher. Starting in January, applicants for FHA-backed reverse mortgages for the first time will have to qualify under comprehensive new "financial assessments" - covering credit history, household cash flow and debt levels - to make sure they have the "capacity and willingness" to meet their financial obligations under the terms of the loan.

The riverside market, on the wharf along Bach Dong Street, is pure traditional Vietnam. Women in loose pantaloons and conical straw hats squat next to bamboo baskets displaying all manner of colorful produce. Latecomers from nearby hamlets approach the quay in narrow sampans, gracefully dipping their quill-shaped oars. Others from outer islands arrive in larger boats stacked with produce and bicycles. The market becomes a bobbing sea of hats.

Here are some growers who specialize in flavorful plums, the varieties they grow and the farmers markets where they sell them. The markets' schedules are given at the end. Burkart Farms, Dinuba, Tulare County: Santa Rosa, Laroda, Wickson, Catalina, Damson. Monday, West Hollywood; Tuesday, Culver City; Wednesday, Santa Monica; Saturday, Torrance. Circle C Ranch, Lake Hughes, Los Angeles County: Cherry plums, Howard Miracle, Satsuma, French, Italian, Stanley and Sugar.