Extend the bathroom times for Christmas – downtown vendors demand
Wit h the Christmas season fast approaching, vendors in downtown Kingston are calling on Mayor of Kingston, Delroy Williams, to keep the sanitary conveniences throughout the area open beyond their usual 7 p.m. closing time. They said this is because people from all over the island are expected to flood the area to buy and sell goods right throughout the nights. The vendors said that as a result of the sanitary facilities being closed early, people are forced to relieve themselves where they are not supposed to. “If dem lock the park (sanitary facilities in St William Grant Park) the people dem a go (urinate) up the roadside,” a female vendor, who asked not to be named, told THE STAR. “Is dem give the people dem chance to pee on the road.”
ON THE STREET
Another vendor, Naptalee Winter, said: “At nine o’clock, the middle of Parade full of people same way. So when the bathroom dem lock, people a go urinate on the street. When you walk around the park, you can smell the urine on the street.” Winter said that he personally raised the matter with Mayor Williams at a previous time, but his plea has not solicited a response.
The vendors said that the closure of the bathroom facilities has also forced them and customers to make unwanted purchases at fast-food restaurants, just to be able to access their bathrooms.
“Is not everybody can go into Mother’s because dem say that you have to buy patties. You can’t go into Burger King because you have to buy burger,” a female vendor pointed out.
The vendors also suggested that the Kingston and St Andrew Municipal Corporation (KSAMC) can put portable toilets at various points downtown for the Christmas season.
“People a go bleach right through the nights so dem can at least put the portable toilets here,” a vendor said.
THE STAR made several unsuccessful attempts to contact the mayor and other representatives from the KSAMC for a comment on the issue.