Tyrone Reid, Staff Reporter
A vendor dismantles his stall yesterday after Kingston Mayor Desmond McKenzie led a team on a lockdown of unregistered stalls in the Pearnel Charles Arcade on Church Street, downtown Kingston.RUDOLPH BROWN/CHIEF PHOTOGRAPHER
GOODS WERE confiscated and stalls chained and padlocked during an undercover raid, as a livid Mayor of Kingston Desmond McKenzie and the management of the Pearnel Charles Arcade clamped down on illegal vending yesterday.
When the mayor and his team arrived at the arcade shortly after 10:00 a.m., vendors selling from the back of their vehicles on Laws Street, after discerning the intent of the mayor, evacuated the scene almost immediately.
The mayor argued that the vendors, who were parked on both sides of the road, leaving no passage for pedestrian on the sidewalk, were a risk to public safety.
ROOM FOR COMPROMISE
A stern mayor told the street vendors that there was room for compromise.
"You scratch my back, I scratch your back ... I am not against dialogue but what is happening cannot continue."
Mr. McKenzie told the vendors that he could allow them to use one side of the road but not both.
Afterwards, he went inside the arcade to visit the delinquent vendors. Padlocks were smashed with hammers and replaced with new locks and chains.
Andrew Payne, a vendor and also a member of the Pearnel Charles Arcade Management Committee, said that the situation had been allowed to get out of hand and now must be remedied.
Several disgruntled vendors who had paid their fees made their grouses known to the mayor. They lamented that the building needs painting plus repairs need to be effected to the leaking roof and some toilets.
