The Port-of-Spain City Cor­po­ra­tion has re­vived plans to pedes­tri­anise a sec­tion of Char­lotte Street, say­ing the move could re­duce traf­fic con­ges­tion, im­prove pub­lic safe­ty, and sup­port both ven­dors and brick-and-mor­tar busi­ness­es.

At a pub­lic con­sul­ta­tion at City Hall in Port-of-Spain this week, chaired by Deputy May­or Abi­na Hart­ley, city of­fi­cials pre­sent­ed the pi­lot project, which pro­pos­es clos­ing Char­lotte Street to ve­hic­u­lar traf­fic be­tween Queen Street and In­de­pen­dence Square North up to the Chi­na­town arch­es from 6 am to 8 pm on Thurs­days, Fri­days, and Sat­ur­days.

“This is a con­ver­sa­tion that start­ed un­der then-May­or (Joel) Mar­tinez,” Hart­ley told stake­hold­ers.

“We recog­nise that there is a lot of con­ges­tion on Char­lotte Street. This pos­es a pub­lic safe­ty is­sue, from emer­gency ve­hi­cles be­ing un­able to pass through quick­ly, to san­i­ta­tion and polic­ing chal­lenges.”

Deputy CEO An­tho­ny O’Brien said all views shared would be record­ed and tak­en to the ad­min­is­tra­tion.

Char­lotte Street has long been a hub for vend­ing. There have been plans to reg­u­larise vend­ing, which of­ten led to ten­sions be­tween ven­dors and busi­ness own­ers.

Man­ag­er of the Char­lotte Street Pro­gramme, Kester Bil­ly, said the lat­est plan is in­tend­ed to cre­ate a safer, func­tion­al space for all con­cerned.

“The in­fra­struc­ture of Port-of-Spain can­not grow; the roads can­not get any wider,” Bil­ly said.

“This pro­pos­al is meant to en­hance pub­lic safe­ty and cre­ate a thriv­ing space for com­merce and tourism.”

But some at­ten­dees said the plan will fail if the is­sue of crime is ig­nored.

“You men­tioned pub­lic safe­ty, but not once did I hear the word ‘crime,’” said Will Chang, a long­time busi­ness own­er on Char­lotte Street.

“Char­lotte Street is in­ter­na­tion­al­ly known as the street you will get robbed on. It’s on Tik­Tok and In­sta­gram, peo­ple make jokes about it.”

Chang said he sup­ports vend­ing and be­lieves it is crit­i­cal to busi­ness sur­vival.

“Busi­ness on Char­lotte Street can­not sur­vive with­out the ven­dors. They bring the foot traf­fic. Once it is man­aged prop­er­ly, it works,” he said.

He added that a prop­er­ly run vend­ing pro­gramme keeps Char­lotte Street live­ly long af­ter neigh­bour­ing streets close.

“On Char­lotte Street, we could go up to six, sev­en, be­cause the ven­dors bring peo­ple to shop.”

Deputy May­or Hart­ley said the cor­po­ra­tion will hold fur­ther con­sul­ta­tions be­fore any de­ci­sion is made.

“We can­not sim­ply de­cide in the coun­cil cham­ber that we’re go­ing to do X, Y, or Z,” Hart­ley said. “We must hear from all stake­hold­ers and do this in a way that works for every­one.”

The cor­po­ra­tion said in­put from ven­dors, busi­ness own­ers, res­i­dents, and the po­lice ser­vice will shape the fi­nal de­ci­sion on whether Char­lotte Street will be­come a pedes­tri­an-on­ly zone on mar­ket days.

The con­sul­ta­tions are ex­pect­ed to con­tin­ue.