Peterson to Apologize to Uninformed Vendors

[dropcap]V[/dropcap]endors in Castries City are infuriated at the second Mother’s Day clean-up by the Castries City Council. They claim that last year Mayor Peterson Francis attempted to wipe out multiple vendors’ stalls, trays and tables, then requested that they pay to have them released from the Marchand Market. This Mother’s Day he did it again, they say.

One of a group of frustrated women that vend near People’s Discount Drugstore told this reporter: “Peterson Francis is a nasty man. He thinks he’s a dictator.” Indicating with a forefinger the far end of the street, she went on: “He break all the chains the people had, and take their things and carry it away and didn’t say anything. And we know just now he coming for us.”

Another vendor referred to the mayor’s publicized plans to clean-up Castries. “The garbage he plans to get rid of is us, the vendors,” she said.   

According to yet another vendor: “He told us we would be getting tents and things. But right now we’re paying $3 a day. When he brings the tent we’ll have to pay $40.” She said that was more than she earned daily.

In January this newspaper quoted Mayor Francis as promising improvements at no immediately added cost to the vendors. “We want people to recover their losses. We are now in the years of profit.” 

The mayor further confirmed that costs for vending would not increase and vendors will be allowed as much time as possible to pay off the already subsidized costs of the tents.

The three women who spoke to this reporter accused Mayor Francis of trying to take away “our bread” by making it difficult to vend in Castries.

“We cannot take on the wickedness going on in this country.”

In his defence, the mayor said: “We didn’t dismantle any of their structures. But we could not allow the use of trays that were obviously quite unsanitary. We took them and put them in storage at the Marchand Market.”

Back in August 2016, following his swearing-in as mayor, Francis told reporters he was looking forward to getting down to work on giving the city an image make-over. Of particular concern to him, he said, were “the city sidewalks that have become overloaded with vendors”, many of
whom, he said, had set up “ramshackle shelters and enormous trays that impede both pedestrian and vehicular traffic”.

In March 2018 it was announced that the CCC “will see the permanent removal of many metal stalls, pallets and other unsightly and potentially hazardous items along city sidewalks and roads in Castries”. On May 9 a release from the Office of the Mayor stated: “On Saturday and Sunday we will be all over the city taking out all the unwanted dirty stuff left behind, especially by vendors.”

Mayor Francis suggested vendors should remove the current president of the Craft and Dry Goods and Vendors Association, Peter ‘Ras’ Isaac, for misleading them. Said the mayor: “I personally have to go to the vendors to offer my apologies. We have been engaging with Mr. Peter Isaac for a very long time now. We discussed with him and he actually agreed that these things cause a danger. It seems Mr. Peter Isaac never relayed that information to his people. We were expecting them to have known.”