CitCo employee moves vendors who block streets

The regular Thursday afternoon bustle at the Queen Square Market got a little steamier just around midday today when a traffic officer and a City Council employee showed up on the West Collet Canal side from the Dean Street bridge and proceeded to forcibly remove a fruit vendor’s produce from his spot on the street side.  News Five got images of him taking down the two tents.  According to the vendors, the Traffic Department has not given them ample time to sell their fruits and because they have nowhere to go, they are being compulsorily removed.  Two of the angry vendors told us what happened just moments before their makeshift stalls were dismantled.

Benjamin Franco, Fruit vendor, West Collet Canal

“When I have the tent to the pine City Hall officer come here, dehn bruk di tent and throw di pine like nothing right here to the truck and he say he have to move so he bruk di tent here and set it on di sidewalk and he say have to move it.”

Marion Ali

Did he say why?

Benjamin Franco

Benjamin Franco

“The why is that we have to sell from five a.m. to ten a.m. and from that time we have to move it but the point is, we di sell Monday and Tuesday, Thursday and Friday.  This is many years ago we di sell here and I don’t know where we could go. We have this product here, we noh finish.  If we finish wi products, we noh need to stay here.  We leaving here one time but we noh finish.  We need tomorrow too. All ah we have to move it, all the wholesaler he want move.”

Marion Ali

From  where?

Benjamin Franco

“To this small bridge, this whole area here to the next bridge.”

Marion Ali

“Did you all get warnings before?”

Benjamin Franco

“Really no because we have to get something like a note.  We noh get no notes, dehn just come, dehn noh even respect we many times ago.”

Franklin Ortiz, Fruit vendor

“I mi have di tent put up and dehn seh mek I move and I tell ah weh I gwein and dehn seh I just have to move.  Soh dehn see I noh di try move my things soh dehn pick it up and bruk up di tent and put it up deh.  I mi got some orange yah weh I mi wah sell, dehn put it up deh.”

Marion Ali

“Did you get any warnings before this one?”

Franklin Ortiz

“Well yeah, one time.”

Marion Ali

“Soh they had given you time to relocate?”

Franklin Ortiz

“Yeah but where I gwein? I noh have nowhere to go.”

The traffic congestion on West Collet Canal has been a problem for years now and when News Five spoke with the Market Clerk, Bernadette Saldivar, she said the residents of the area have been complaining about the vendors for some time now.  She said the vendors park their vehicles on the street at night and the complaints against them range from casual sexual engagements to noise pollution from gambling and loud music during the wee hours.  Saldivar added that the wholesale vendors were allowed to sell their products up to ten in the morning but have been issued written notices from last October that they would have to move after ten o’clock because of the traffic congestion.