Vendors are pleading with Port-of-Spain mayor Louis Lee Sing to extend their leases for vending space at the Salvatori Building site, corner of Frederick Street and Independence Square. Vendors met on Friday to discuss solutions to the problem of a location for their businesses and said they were disheartened by the lack of concern shown by the mayor. Nisma Robe, who operates a booth at the site, said she did not understand why the mayor was not allowing them to continue their trade.
"If we have to move from here it will be back to square one. We will have to go back to the streets and getting run from police," she added. Robe said most of the vendors at the site were young people and if that was taken away from them it could mean going back to crime, as many of them needed the selling space to generate funds to feed their families. Vendors said they had signed a contract up until the March 12 but were hoping the mayor would extend the lease. Owner of a booth at the site, Natasha Buchanan, was visibly upset as she lamented both the conditions of the site and the relocation that she, along with the other vendors, would have to make.
Buchanan said vendors had been given tents by the corporation but had invested their own money to build booths. "After putting out so much for him (Lee Sing) to come and force us out, that is wickedness." she said. Vendors discussed a possible protest and some said they would refuse to move. "We are just trying to support our families," they said. Yesterday, Lee Sing said the vendors were aware the site was provided for them on a seasonal basis. He said after the Christmas season ended the lease was extended until after Carnival. When asked if the city corporation would assist in an alternative location for the vendors he said they had not.
He reiterated that the vendors always had been aware that was a seasonal thing. Lee Sing said: "The site was provided to assist seasonal vendors with their trade. Time has come for that season to end."