At the western extreme of the Arcade there is a neat row of buildings constructed in the style of old-fashioned ‘cake shops,’ offering an assortment of creole foods and drinks for sale. Some offer beer. Outside the shops collections of chairs and tables provide patrons with the facility to eat and drink in comfort.
Here, there are no piles of garbage, no filth-infested drains and none of the various other eyesores and encumbrances that have become commonplace in the rest of the city. The facility is literally an oasis in a desert of what, invariably is a desert of chaos and confusion.
Just over three months after the formal opening of the Arcade, its 170- odd occupants have good reason to be proud of themselves. Most of them have now settled comfortably into managing their own permanent businesses after years of “hard grind’ as itinerant vendors; and the available evidence suggests that they take seriously the responsibility of caring for the facility that affords them a more established place in the urban commercial structure.
Electricity has come to the Arcade too. In the wake of the opening and with Christmas approaching most of the vendors had been fretful about the likelihood that they might have to ensure the busiest period of the commercial calendar without lighting and, as a consequence, not benefit from the seasonal rush. That would have meant that the stallholders who had only just ‘sunk’ hundreds of thousands of dollars into constructing their stalls and tens of thousands more into stocking them would have missed the best possible opportunity to realize a measure of return on their investment. Just prior to Christmas GPL turned up.
The stallholders are grateful too for what they say is the excellent relationship that they enjoy with the Mayor and City Council. It is rare for the municipality to benefit from the fulsome accolades that the stallholders shower on them; but they are both generous and genuine in their praise.
Shirley Khan, a frail woman with a stern countenance and a stallholder in the Food Court is a member of the 15-person Committee that keeps a watchful collective eye on the Arcade and its welfare. She is happy with the diligence of the municipality. Officers of the Council occupy a small on-site office just to ensure the good order is maintained.
The stallholders are concerned about the security of their premises and the cost of providing a guard service is their responsibility. Khan says that the Arcade is sufficiently safe to reassure the stallholders.
Where there are ‘gripes’ most of these are small and remediable. A few vendors asked that City Hall be given a gentle reminder of a mosquito menace and of the need to spray the facility. Others frown on what they say is the unfair advantage accruing to those stallholders who continue to use their stalls as storerooms while trading from the streets. They complain quietly, mindful of the importance of maintaining a convivial working environment.
When they fret about street vending in the vicinity of the Arcade they look mostly to the City Constabulary to bring an end to the problem. The sense of comfort exuded by those who still find the pavement better for trading suggests that the Constabulary is guilty or indulgence………….or worse.
The stallholders who have put the streets behind them believe that posture of the delinquent ones is counterproductive. They point out that the persistence of pavement vending continues to undermine what ought to be a collective effort to encourage potential customers to visit the facility.
The Arcade, the stallholders say, is still to ‘catch on’ with urban shoppers. The aversion is perhaps a legacy of the not too distant past when what is now one of the most attractive facilities in downtown Georgetown was a festering vermin-infested sore and when its dark, foreboding interior served as a disincentive to shoppers. All that has changed and the stallholders appear determined to sustain the transformation.
What is lacking, what is clearly needed is an aggressive initiative to sell the New Vendors Arcade to the citizens. If the understandable surge in patronage that attends most business places during the Christmas period brought the stallholders their own modest measure of ‘good cheer’ the more permanent popularity of the Arcade as a favoured place for shopping is yet to materialize. What is urgently needed is a focus by the Management Committee on a collective initiative to sell the virtues of the Arcade to a citizenry that may well welcome its shopping-friendly environment.
To say the Arcade is a signal success for the virtues of small business is to indulge in profound understatement. But we need to do much more than sing the praises of the facility.
The municipality, the government and the private sector through its various umbrella agencies ought to throw their lot in as a gesture of deserving support for the hardy band, diligent, hard-working people who, mostly through their own efforts have literally picked themselves up from the streets and have set their sights fixedly on a brighter future.
