EDITORIAL Vendors

The vendors’ story is well-worked terrain. The issues go back a long way, and the arguments in relation to them have not changed over the years. On the one hand are the authorities with their desire for an orderly city and the fact that many vendors dump their garbage in the gutters and open spaces, blocking the drainage in the first instance, and leaving the central areas in an unsightly condition in the second. They also block the pavements, and sometimes the roadways too, leaving no free passage for pedestrians, and in certain spots create a hazard for drivers as well.

Then there is the business community, which has complained bitterly about the obstruction to the entrances of their premises, and at Christmastime, in particular, the competition that unregulated vendors represent, when they pay no rates, have no overheads and possess no fixed installations which have to be maintained. That said, it should also be noted that some shopkeepers have come to an accommodation with certain vendors in the past, whereby they agreed to sell a portion of the former’s goods in the holiday season.

On the other side of the equation are the vendors, many of whom are single mothers with children to feed and equip for school, and all of whom are attempting to make a legal living in an environment where unemployment levels are high. What is to happen to them, it is asked, if they are not allowed to sell? The inevitable answer comes back that they will swell the ranks of the poverty stricken, and the more desperate ones may even turn their hand to less legitimate pursuits.

City Hall under this government was already in conflict with different groups of vendors last year, including those in Bourda Street, some of whose stalls were suddenly demolished, and the owners told to relocate to Orange Walk. This was in September, but Town Clerk Royston King in his defence said that they had been given notice since July of the need to move, because of the demolition of a building.

In January this year vendors were barred from the Merriman Mall, and a few months later, those in front of the former Guyana Stores bond were told to move. In the last case, however, one of them did secure a temporary injunction against the city.

The case of the Stabroek Market vendors in May was a little different. Aside from the complaint that the confusion in that area lent cover to criminal activities, the main motivation for the timing appears to have been the Jubilee celebrations, because the floats would pass there on their way to Brickdam. No one doubts that it has improved the look of the area; after all, this is the first time anyone has seen the front of Stabroek Market since the days of the yellow