“My job is to now find a solution to this and to find a way so that you live, they live and we all live,” were the words uttered by City Mayor, Alfred Mentore to vendors yesterday who had been plying their trade in front of Muneshwer’s shopping complex but have been ordered removed by the court.
The meeting was called to determine the future of pavement vending at the Muneshwer location at Lots 9 and 10 Water, Commerce and Longden streets following the court ruling.
In the brief meeting, Mayor Mentore said while every vendor relies on vending to provide for their families, neither he nor they can ignore the Court Order that they must remove. He noted that the Order did not give a time frame. He revealed that the mandamus states that the owner alleged that he cannot access his building and that persons are hanging their items on his establishment. Mentore also pointed out that he heard reports of one vendor who had gotten into an altercation with the owner which might have prompted the order being filed, leaving all the other vendors in a predicament. Mentore said he had reached out to the owner of Muneshwers, “I reached out to the owner of this particular place, I also reached out to the attorney and our attorneys so that we can find a tripartite solution on this issue.”