BASSETERRE, St. Kitts - Controversy rages each time vendors are asked to move on, yet vendors are and will always remain part of the reality of our existence. Our attitude ought not to be one of hiding them in places where they are ‘out of the way’ for this does not help them economically. We ought to consider facilitating and encouraging their attempts to make an honest living.
Bank Street has been suggested as an ideal spot for vendors. Here is a street in the heart of town used as a through-way to take persons from the Circus in the heart of Basseterre to Independence Square. It has minimum commercial business and it could be enhanced to give vendors their rites of passage.
It has been further suggested that it could be blocked from traffic and can become a pedestrian’s delight and the vendors’ haven.
SKNVibes understands that this suggestion was already raised by none other than the “Keep Basseterre Beautiful’ Committee. It is possible that they are still working on the concept of making it into a tourist attraction in itself.
But we must provide a place for our locals – for local buying and selling. It is time that the concept of vendors being illegal squatters be put to rest.
The economic situation of our country demands that we stop chasing vendors and telling them to find somewhere else to go but that we direct them to areas that we provide for them.
If this is not done, we may just be turning them into a nation of beggars.
New quote: “It takes a village to help a vendor make a living.”
