It’s 3.30 in the afternoon and vendor Omica Douglas is making her second sale for the day.
“Watch this,” she says, “Four hundred dollars. Y’all just see me make my second sale for the day. I gonna add it to my $500. That’s $900 I mek for the day. It sound nice, no?”
Douglas is one of the almost 100 vendors who were removed from the Stabroek Market Square on May 1, 2016. The vendors have since been relocated to a lot at Hadfield and Lombard streets, which has since been dubbed “Parliament View Mall.”
During a visit yesterday by Stabroek News, a certain despondent frustration permeated the atmosphere. There were no customers, just defeated vendors.
“This is the sleeping mall,” one of Douglas’ neighbours says.
“You come in maybe at six, set up by seven and then everybody gonna start sleeping. Look my bed done mek up over dey,” she adds, while noting that she has sold nothing for the day.
“If this is the good life,” another declares, “I don’t want it, ’cause me and me children never punish so.”
This vendor is not sure how she will pay for her child’s schools supplies for the new school term in September. “I have commitments and City Hall pressing you so hard that you can’t meet these commitment,” she laments.
When the vendors were removed in May, City Hall had declared that the vendors and taxi and minibus drivers were being moved from the market square to facilitate resurfacing, cleaning and reorganizing of the bus and car parks and vending spots. This was supposedly part of a plan to reshape not just the appearance but also the ambience of the area. They were told that they would be housed at this temporary location for three months. They were also promised running water, washroom facilities, lights and security.
Three months later, they are still at the lot and they have no water, no washrooms, no lights, no security and no official communication from City Hall.
Deputy Mayor Sherod Duncan was also visiting when this newspaper was present but he had little information to offer the vendors. He does not know what plans the administration has for providing these vendors with “adequate spaces to earn their living” as requested by President David Granger.
At the Council’s last Statutory Meeting, held on July 25, Duncan, who was chairing in the absence of Mayor Patricia Chase-Green, asked for an update on the status of the vendors.
He was told by Deputy Town Clerk Sharon Henry-Monroe that the Town Clerk Royston King was in discussion with the owner of the Hadfield Street lot to secure an extension.
Asked to perhaps rephrase her answer, Henry-Monroe sat confused until a councillor explained to her that it was impossible for the Town Clerk, who was in Chile with the Mayor, to also be in discussions with the property owner. She subsequently reworded her answer and noted that “the administration” is in discussions with the property owner.
Whatever the results of those discussions are, the vendors have not been informed. Stabroek News attempted to reach King, who has returned to Guyana, for comment but that proved futile.
“When they wanted to move us, they call us to City Hall for a meeting,” Douglas said. “Now three months later, if you don’t know to read a newspaper, you don’t know what happening. Nothing. No information.”
“The Town Clerk say if you have a problem come see him,” another vendor points out. “But when you go to see him, you waiting forever and can’t see him. All the secretary could tell you is that he in a meeting. He always in a meeting. He in more meeting than Granger.”
Other vendors tell of coming to work in the morning and finding faeces in their stalls.
Benjamin Todd, who sells clothing, tells Stabroek News that his merchandise is being damaged because of the poor quality of the tents provided by City Hall.
“These things barely last a week before they break up. Whoever sell them to City Hall pacoo them. Plus is one man working security in here and is a private person. We paying him $200 every night and is he alone, people still coming in a break you place and every morning you finding faeces,” he said.
As disappointed as they are with City Hall, some of the vendors are also feeling betrayed by their fellow vendors.
One vendor noted that “when PPP was in power, they going out on the road and performing. Now they mattie in power and they ain’t want do nothing.”
“When Sooba was Town Clerk, we build coffin and bury dolly. Now they quiet, quiet,” he added.
According to the vendors, they don’t mind working under a time restriction at their previous location but they can’t survive at the current spot.
“We need to go back where we went until they find a permanent location. Even if you tell we work from 6 in the morning to 6 in the afternoon and completely clear the place. But we can’t stay here. I hearing about another three months. Another three months in here is death. You gonna have to carry me out in a body bag,” another vendor said.
