MONTEGO BAY, St James — Mayor of Montego Bay Councillor Richard Vernon on Thursday lambasted vendors in the Old Shoe Arcade, reeling off a long list of infringements from destruction of public property to squatting, prostitution and murder within the space designated for small-scale vending.

“In Jamaica, we say that you get an inch and you take a yard. Now I see persons cutting out – yes, cutting out – the fencing, the iron fencing that we have placed around the Old Shoe Arcade and turning them into the shop front, facing the sidewalk,” charged Vernon.

He was speaking to vendors during a meeting at the western city’s Civic Centre in Sam Sharpe Square Thursday morning.

“What difference is that from being on the street, vending. The back of the shop should be turned to the sidewalk and the front inwards to the market,” he chided.

The mayor insisted that this behaviour will not be tolerated and vendors found guilty of this practice will have to fix the damage done or face consequences.

“We are going to shut down every one of them that is facing the sidewalk and you have to find the money to put in back the iron fencing or we shut it down completely,” he warned.

“You put back the iron fencing before we reach down there,” Vernon reiterated.

The mayor said they have now, in effect, changed the approved orientation of the shops.

“One man cut it out, nobody say nothing, a next man cut it out, nobody say nothing. They start shell down the whole place, so all that is going to be left are the columns going around, no iron fencing,” he lamented.

Vernon insisted that this was no way to treat public property and pointed out that it is not cheap to erect a perimeter fence made of iron.

“You put in back the iron fencing before I ask the team to come down there. And I am dead serious! What you take this place for?” he chided.

Thursday’s meeting was organised in response to a number of concerns raised by the vendors. In a letter they sought clarity on matters including how to proceed following the devastation caused by multiple fires and Hurricane Melissa. The letter also commended the St James Municipal Corporation for planned upgrades for the facility.

In responding to their concerns the mayor provided an update on previous plans to use containers as stalls. That plan, he said, has now been scrapped and it has impacted previously announced deadlines.

“We are building a better structure, so it is taking us some time,” Vernon advised.

He noted that shop owners have, in the interim, been given leeway to rebuild temporary spaces and continue their business until the corporation follows through on its plans to upgrade the facility.

During the meeting Vernon made it clear to vendors that the area use will remain a space for small entrepreneurs and dismissed talk that a car park will be placed there.

“We have car park in other areas and if we need more space we can go up when we get the funds,” said Vernon.

However, he again took the opportunity to touch on the importance of public order as he pointed to issues of crime and violence impacting the arcade. The mayor expressed concern that there has been prostitution and well as serious crimes such as murder in the area.

“I went there myself. I checked the shops, only 20 per cent of the shops are occupied by legitimate business operators. Babies being born, clothes washed and hung out on lines. If you look in the window, foot cock-up,” he said.

The mayor also lambasted some of the vendors for how they dispose of their garbage, accusing them of using several areas outside the market as mini dumps. He said that practice is especially noticeable after a disaster.

The vendors, for their part, said they also desire changes and called for increased policing.

Vendors who ply their wares in the Old Shoe Arcade listen attentively during Thursday’s meeting with Mayor of Montego Bay Richard Vernon at the Civic Centre. 

Some shops at the Old Shoe Arcade in Montego Bay now face the streets after vendors cut out sections of the iron fence.