Eviction of traders on Robb St underscores city’s awkward stranglehold on urban vending

Royston King

The four female vendors who had agreed to leave their consignments of fruit and vegetables unprotected and walk the two blocks west along Robb Street to engage the Stabroek Business on their unceremonious eviction from their trading spots on Robb Street between Alexander Street and Bourda Street seemed calm but pensive when they arrived at the newspaper’s office just after night had fallen. Their plight had materialized much earlier in the day when they had arrived in the afternoon to meet the space in which they trade barricaded. When they enquired they were told by stern-faced members of the City Constabulary that their expulsion from the area had been effected on the orders of the Town Clerk. The four, and others whom this newspaper spoke with later in the evening all said that no reason was given. (Vending resumed yesterday after a