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 buses which used to park on the tarmac outside.
The downside to all of this, of course, was that City Hall in its ‘unwisdom’ had not made viable alternative arrangements for the displaced vendors. They were told they had to go to a vacant lot at Hadfield and Lombard Streets, but when some of them went there they found the owner had placed padlocks on the gates, and the ground was not in a state where stalls could be erected. There is, of course, too the perennial problem that when the authorities identify a site for relocation, it is usually not on a main thoroughfare and is unlikely to attract customers. The success of vending depends on its convenience to consumers, who do not have to go out of their way to shop.
The latest contretemps between the vendors and City Hall relates to Robb Street, where vendors turned up one morning to find their access barred by members of the City Constabulary. In this instance, they were not given advance notice, and no alternative location was communicated. After a hue and cry, and a silent placard protest by Councillor Andrea Marks at a Mayor & City Council statutory meeting, the Town Clerk came to a compromise with the vendors and they have been allowed back in the interim.
In the meantime, the vendors have formed a union which Mr King has ill-advisedly shown reluctance to meet, and the M&CC has placed public advertisements in the press, one of which itemized the reasons for the removal. These covered such issues as poor sanitation; the fact that the roadways were being made unsafe; poor food and hygiene practices; criminal activities; and complaints from legitimate stallholders in the markets of lack of sales because of vendors.
An earlier notice listed the guidelines which vendors were being asked to follow when selling, such as having a proper garbage bin, and keeping passageways to businesses, etc, free from boxes and barrels.
Many big cities have arrangements for vendors, although those in the developed world have street-sellers strictly controlled where they operate under licence. The thing is that urban centres like London, for example, are huge, sprawling cities, and the equivalent of our vendors tend to sell from barrows in a number of suburban shopping areas. With one or two notable exceptions, they are not to be found downtown. Georgetown, in contrast, is a very small population centre, and shopping is not that diffuse, so that vendors automatically congregate downtown where the main business traffic is to be found. Inevitably, therefore, this will cause problems and conflict.
What Mr King does not yet seem to have learnt is that he cannot just issue an order and deprive such a large body of people of an income without first giving them warning, consulting them – and other citizens too if necessary ‒ and making feasible alternative arrangements for them. As said earlier, it is not as if this is a recent problem; it has been there not just for years, but for decades, and inevitably the vendors themselves over that period have built up a sense of their rights. In other words, even if it is approached in the proper way, this problem will not be solved speedily.
In the second of their public advertisements, the M&CC disclosed their plan for vending in the city, namely, extending the northern side of Stabroek Market with an upper storey to accommodate them; constructing a three-storey shopping mall at the New Vendors Mall; and building a modern three-storey shopping mall at Bourda Green. Where some of those plans are concerned, he will need discussions with more than the vendors, particularly in relation to Stabroek Market – a listed building – and Bourda Green perhaps. However, the ad did go on to say that early next month the city council will begin a series of consultations with vendors, the business community and other stakeholders “to have their contributions on the design and arrangements of these markets and shopping malls…” If it is implemented, that at least is to move in the right direction.
And as for the Town Clerk, who so far has appeared to fall into the hot-headed category, he has just a brief period in which to bone up on the art of consultation, discussion and negotiation, and polish up whatever diplomatic skills he can command. He is, after all, not a czar; he is a city official in the service of the public.
