What has come to be known as Parliament View Mall—the description could hardly be more inappropriate—is a hotbed of muted but ill-concealed resentment amongst the more than 100 vendors evicted from the Stabroek Market Square three months ago to their new, decidedly unappealing location.
They continue to cling to the hope that heed will be taken of the expressed wish by President David Granger that City Hall find them some acceptable location from which to ply their trade. However, a sense of despondent resignation is beginning to settle over them. Their numbers, the cramped conditions and the prevailing period of inclement weather have combined to render the conditions inhospitable and the vendors no longer trade in the environment of coarse breeziness that obtained at their previous location.
When Stabroek Business spoke with them last week the vendors were wondering aloud about City Hall’s earlier promise of sanitary facilities and 24-hour security. The sanitary facilities are there, but unattended and, as a consequence already in a deplorable state. There is no electricity at the Parliament View location and the promised 24- hour security is essentially a lone guard. The vendors are mistrustful so they reportedly meet the cost of their own security since the presence of the lone sentry has done little to stop their goods from disappearing. They complain too that the wooden pallets that are an essential part of their trading paraphernalia and which had been damaged during the mass migration from the Stabroek Market area have had to be repaired at their own expense.
