With intense fear for their safety, vendors at Coronation Market in downtown Kingston were hesitant to voice their concerns about the state of the popular facility for the selling of produce.

“In yah terrible. Sometimes yuh talk yuh lose yuh life, suh it better yuh nuh seh nothing,” one vendor whispered on Thursday.

Another vendor, who has been selling at the market for over 35 years mumbled, “Mi nuh wah too talk nothing enuh, ’cause when mi talk dem aguh hate mi and wah kill mi.”

Yet another vendor added, “Mi fraid fi talk, a so dem kill one oman weh talk. Next ting a mi mek the news.”

But those who spoke with the Jamaica Observer, on request of anonymity, complained about the lack of security, messy restrooms, poor lighting, and unpaved roads.

There were scraps of escallion, cabbage, and lettuce, as well as sugar cane trash, scattered loosely across the walkway of the facility, which vendors ignored as they were more focused on getting the Christmas sales.

One vendor, who said he has been selling there for 20 years, said it’s the “same old, same old problem”.

“Every part in yah wah fix. The light, the bathroom, everything. The system is so bad, it rotten, but wi nuh have a choice,” he said.

Lamenting on the security at the market, another vendor said it is well needed as it will help to make her and her colleagues and customers feel safer.

“Wi need it most of all. Wi things not safe in here and wi nuh safe either, enuh. Every single time there are a lot of thieves. Mi just try nuh put myself inna nuh problem wid nobody. Wi need solider and police inna yah, nuh likkle security cyah control in yah,” she declared.

Another vendor complained about the mucky state of the facility when it rains.

“When rain fall a pure mud inna the market. Dem need fi pave off the place and put up some sheds. It need fi upgrade,” said the vendor, who was selling near two large potholes.

Other sections of the market were also pockmarked with large potholes and debris.

She, however, had no problem with the restrooms, but said if there was a mess there, it would be caused by some of her colleagues and not the buyers.

“It nice and fresh, clean like a whistle. A dem nasty it up. If yuh guh in deh and see filth in deh, a people dem who a sell in yah do it,” she said.

A neighbouring vendor had a similar plight about the bathroom.

“Good bathroom and bad bathroom in yah. A people from in yah nasty it up. If you guh inna one bathroom and see it dah way deh, when you come out weh yuh fi do? Leave it like how yuh see it. That mean say when me come now, yuh nuh fi get no surprise,” she explained.

As for the rubbish heap, she said it is not really a bother as it is often cleared with a tractor.

There were different sections of the market with piles of garbage which were swarmed with flies.

“Sometimes we quarrel because the rubbish out in the walkway, but dem do dem best fi sweep it in and keep it out the road. The other day dem say the tractor fi clean up the rubbish never did a work, but it a work now. Wi good fi now until the rubbish spread out again.”