LAST TUESDAY, police started to rid streets in Bridgetown of illegal vendors.
Those plying their trade along Hardwood Alley were the first to be moved while those on the Charles Duncan O’neal Bridge and at the entrance of the Fairchild Street Bus Terminal were given notice that their turn would be coming.
On Friday police made those without licences pack up and leave, much to the displeasure of those who said they had no other way to make a living.
Online readers were largely supportive of the police from the outset. Many felt The City had become overrun with vendors who made it difficult to walk and often left the streets untidy.
Rapunzel28: I know everyone in Bim [is] trying their best to make a living but I avoid the bridge like the plague because trying to navigate one’s body through the sea of vendors and people is like walking through slush. I always felt that was not the place for them. I believe an alternative will be sought for them.
Kammie Holder: The area looks like one of the extremely filthy shanty towns I see all over West Africa. No pride and filthy surroundings lead to low self-esteem and increased poverty as well as deviance. However, the smart architects build highways and completed the Constitution Redevelopment Project and failed to incorporate wayside vending into the design.
Sodi: Same story, different day. Vendors are an impediment to revitalising Bridgetown, because they are set in their ways, and tend to do things any how they please. That is caused by lack of proper enforcement. They will return as soon as the coast is clear.
Peggy Stoute Morin: Well, I had to swim my way across that bridge outside the bus terminal. That is not a good thing. I decided two times were enough, and I simply avoided the area. It has the feel of a Third World shanty town. These vendors need an alternative, and they need to stay there once it’s provided.
John Plass: Gosh, I was shocked to see how they are taking over The City. Bridgetown, a once clean and talked about city, is overrun by street vendors. I remembered time gone by I used to sit on the benches that used to beautify the front of the terminal and feed the pigeons. Now the benches are gone and so are the pigeons. We need to take back our city.
PB: It’s about time. You bunch have to respect the laws, even if you have to make a living. When you wrong, you wrong.
Calypsocalover: The beginning process of making The City passable, hospitable, clean, safe and not like some slum city somewhere else in the world. I know many will jump on the authorities for this, but it should have been done long ago and constantly enforced. Bridgetown looks like a slum, and much of it is due to this attitude that I can set up and sell where I want, erect any structure and obstruct the sidewalks. They then leave the unsightly trash, rotten fruits and other filthy stuff in plain sight.
• Natasha Beckles is the NATION’S Online Co-ordinator.