Port-of-Spain Mayor Louis Lee Sing’s plan to relocate St James food vendors has run into a roadblock. In a telephone interview yesterday, Lee Sing said he attempted to make adjustments with the St James vendors but met opposition from them and various ministries. He said his latest interest was in taking the St James amphitheatre and placing all the vendors there in stalls. However, the St James Community Improvement Committee is against the idea and he has not received any response from the Ministries of Tourism or Local Government. “The St James amphitheatre has fallen into ruin and we wrote to Minister (Stephen) Cadiz to get it but received no response. I am waiting on him but we are not going to make progress. I got word that we will never get it,” he said.
Lee Sing said also he wrote to the Ministry of Local Government to extend the hours of the market. He seemed exasperated the decision had to go Cabinet. “I can no longer be the mayor. This is a simple thing like taking it to Cabinet to extend the market. What are we running? A roti shop? Once we get his permission we will be able to put our plan in motion and accommodate the vendors and regularise the market. Taxpayers’ dollars—yours and mine —are going up in smoke,” he said. He said the St James market cost the city $400,000 a month to run but catered only to six vendors on a daily basis, although “it has the capacity for 31 stalls. “If there is an election I will be citizen Lee Sing again. (Dr Keith) Rowley (PNM Opposition Leader) will have to find a new person to prepare. The government must begin to treat this expenditure on a serious matter,” said the frustrated mayor. “I always run a successful business and we not making any headway. I would put them (vendors) there (at the amphitheatre) and put in toilets as they need,” he said.
Lee Sing said every weekend he would have employed calypsonians to put on a show. “The stage is not utilised and we could put on cultural programmes there. I don’t want to wait in vain for permission,” he said. President of the St James Community Improvement Committee Earl Crosby said the committee was against the idea. “The amphitheatre was not built for that purpose. The vendors are located in the areas of the bars and I think this is where they want to be. The mayor had no consultation with us. You can’t just send people there to a place you don’t control,” he said. Crosby said the vendors were still selling on the sidewalk and were being asked to pay $700 a month. During a tour of St James yesterday, only four vendors were out peddling their goods.
Charmaine Marcelle, one of the vendors, who sells fruits, clothing and DVDs, said she did not like the ideas presented by Lee Sing. “They wanted people to pay them $700. It is $600 in town and that is only for Thursday, Friday and Saturday. We are here in St James every day. “He (Lee Sing) said is only food we could bring so I have to get rid of my clothes. I like to travel. He should mark off a spot and let them pay rent,” she said. Another vendor, Roxanne Williams, said she was not moving from her location. “That place was small. You don’t know when he will act up again. Nobody coming down there and see all you. All the rats coming from the rubbish put out by the big business every morning.
“Plenty rats and stuff and vagrants bursting open bags and they (big businesses) waiting for the corporation to pick up the rubbish,” she said.
Kelvin LaRoche, a newspaper vendor, said he was not being targeted by the corporation. “We are selling something of national importance. It looked as if he wanted to zone them but didn’t succeed. The big businesses here use the pavement as well. I think he would work something out if he wants to get revenue from them,” he said.
