Mayor vows to remove street vendors, braiders
Those many cynics in the community will say that they knew it all along: that with so many cruise ship passengers flooding Belize City, our aggressive entrepreneurs would inevitably begin to quarrel over all those U.S. dollars. As for inevitability, we’re not so sure, but as Jacqueline Woods found out this afternoon, all is not well on Fort Street.
Jacqueline Woods, Reporting
It started with a few hair braiders and vendors conducting informal business outside the tourism village. But as the cruise season heats up, so has the situation on Fort Street, to the point where it’s threatening to kill the goose that laid the golden egg.
David Fonseca, Mayor, Belize City
“For weeks now we’ve been getting complaints from the reports given by each cruise ship that comes in and those reports are based on comments made by the passengers coming off the ships to the city and the rest of the country, all negative because of the numerous outbursts by the vendors on the streets. Vendors in the sense of everyone, vendors, taxi operators, and also the hair braiders especially creating problems out there, fighting with each other, cussing up each other. This is all happening in front of the tourist and they have their video cameras and they’re taking this back outside. The cruise ship companies have expressed their concerns that if this continues and we don’t do anything about it, they will have to stop coming to Belize.”
The vendors say they are not the problem; that the situation is caused by the hair braiders trying to undersell each other in an effort to make the most money.
Adelma Broaster, Vendor
“When people are braiding hair you’d have these girls, they would say, okay I’ll braid your hair for twenty-five dollars U.S. Somebody else will come from behind and say, oh she’s braiding your hair for twenty-five U.S., I’ll do it for you for ten U.S., and in there lies a problem.”
“There’s a lot of fighting, cursing, bad wording that occurs outside here, and it gets to the point that even I can’t tolerate it. So what I’m trying to tell everybody out here is that we can all live.”
Jennifer Baptist, Vendor
“The hair braiders they start to fight, pushing, pulling, then they invest we in, weh noh even the cause no problem.”
Lillian Brown, who was the most vocal hair braider on the scene says, you guessed it, they are innocent.
Lillian Brown, Hair Braider
“They talk bad like the braider them dah the problem. The braiders dah noh the problem, because the braiders the try do the same thing weh they the try do, hustle and get something fi eat, and they have kids fi feed to same way.”
On Monday night, Mayor David Fonseca met with those concerned and it was decided that the only way the problem can be solved is by relocating everyone to the Memorial Park.
David Fonseca
“Present at the meeting was also Mr. Anthony Mahler of the Belize Tourism Board trying to explain to them the role that they play in the tourism industry and the seriousness of their conduct. During the meeting, all the vendors had their say, their comments to make as to who is responsible, but they did acknowledge that there was a problem on the streets, and they did acknowledge that there were violent outbursts and that they needed to do something about this, and there were glad that the meeting was called for us to clarify these matters and concerns. At the end of the meeting, it was agreed by them that they would move into the Memorial Park. For us to assist them the Belize Tourism Board has agreed to set up tents for them, each of them will get a tent from the Belize Tourism Board.”
Those present were told that they had move to their new location on Wednesday, November twenty-seventh…the day when four cruise ships are scheduled to arrive. Today, However, the vendors told us that they won’t be going anywhere.
Ivy Pelayo, Vendor
“The hair braiders are always fighting and fussing, they have complaints and then they say the vendors, and it’s not the vendors. Every time they make a complaint, they say the vendors, it’s not the vendors, the hair braiders are fighting, and if they’re fighting remove them because they are causing problems for the whole tourism industry. I invested my money and this is my daily bread, the mayor will not pay my bills and I will not move from out here. And if the police move me, I will come back again and again because this is my living.”
Mark Pollard, Vendor
“Now I the try to fight for my lee bread, I put in a money out here, and I noh think he wah disturb my lee earnings right now, because then fi he bread butter pan the two sides, mine noh even butter pan none, I just di try. And just tell ah Mark Pollard seh that, because I have to get there.”
Jacqueline Woods
“How much you stand to lose?”
Jennifer Baptist, Vendor
“At least over a thousand dollars nearly. And so weh we wah do if we noh mek they move we and put we under tomorrow. We not even wah mek wah dollar. And that’s dah our daily bread.”
Jacqueline Woods
“What are your intentions, will you still come out here?”
Jennifer Baptist
“I wah come right here tomorrow, they got to move us.”
Elta Ramirez, Vendor
“Job very hard to get and we the try personally fi mek wah lee money, now they the move we to the park and twenty-five dollars a day. Sometimes as a single mother of four, we noh even mek twenty-five dollars. Like today, I noh mek nothing yet, nothing. So I noh understand why yet, so tomorrow we wah see what wah happen.”
Mayor Fonseca says one thing he is sure of is that everyone will
be removed.
David Fonseca
“Well, yesterday they all agree that they will move. Initially we had suggested that they would move down to the Battlefield Park, centre of town, they didn’t too like that, so they suggested that instead of going to Battlefield Park, let us move them to the Memorial Park. And we said fine, we’ll go along with that. The Belize Tourism Board has also confirmed that they will assist in putting out flyers and signs to direct the tourists, once coming out of the village to that point. And the vendors agreed, they all agreed, so come tomorrow Wednesday, they will be in Memorial Park.”
Jacqueline Woods for News 5.
This current season will be the biggest ever for cruise ship arrivals in Belize.
