Dear Editor,
This is an open letter to Her Worship The Mayor Councillor Angela Brown Burke:
I write to ask if you could look into the issue of pedestrians getting comfortable places to walk in downtown Kingston.
I walk along the roads in the Parade area and think to myself ‘what a big market stretching from Darling street in the west to Duke Street in the east, and Heywood Street in the north to Ocean Boulevard in the south’. Vendors have bullied their way into the walking space of the pedestrians. We are left to walk on tiptoe and have to duck under hanging obstacles on Beckford, Orange, Princess, Barry, West and King streets as vendors occupy the walkway for which they allegedly paid the Kingston and St Andrew Corporation.
Sometimes pedestrians have to walk in the road and run the risk of being run over by speeding vehicles and licensed handcarts being pushed against the flow of traffic. Your Worship, the vendors dispose of their garbage right where they sell, posing the risk of pedestrians slipping on plastic bags or peels from ground produce.
Taxi drivers park and pick up passengers any and everywhere, nullifying the meaning of the no-parking sign and causing traffic congestion in the already crowded town. Your Worship, the lack of order and clear walking space has been a breeding ground for hoodlums preying on unsuspecting pedestrians and customers.
As we near the festive season, the number of roadside vendors will multiply tenfold. In addition, some vendors are hostile and violent.
The problem is that the vendors have been allowed to occupy the sidewalks for years, hence it seems impossible to remove them, some even say they pay the council to vend on the sidewalk. The cat-and-mouse game between the municipal police and the vendors is not effective; something more is needed.
Your Worship, will the vending area at the corner of West Queen Street in front of St William Grant Park that was destroyed by fire some years ago ever be reopened? Is there an area for taxis to drop off and pick up? Is the licensing of handcarts permission to become a nuisance in the town?
I respectfully ask that theses issues be looked into. I look forward for your response in action.
Hezekan Bolton
h_e_z_e@hotmail.com
This is an open letter to Her Worship The Mayor Councillor Angela Brown Burke:
I write to ask if you could look into the issue of pedestrians getting comfortable places to walk in downtown Kingston.
I walk along the roads in the Parade area and think to myself ‘what a big market stretching from Darling street in the west to Duke Street in the east, and Heywood Street in the north to Ocean Boulevard in the south’. Vendors have bullied their way into the walking space of the pedestrians. We are left to walk on tiptoe and have to duck under hanging obstacles on Beckford, Orange, Princess, Barry, West and King streets as vendors occupy the walkway for which they allegedly paid the Kingston and St Andrew Corporation.
Sometimes pedestrians have to walk in the road and run the risk of being run over by speeding vehicles and licensed handcarts being pushed against the flow of traffic. Your Worship, the vendors dispose of their garbage right where they sell, posing the risk of pedestrians slipping on plastic bags or peels from ground produce.
Taxi drivers park and pick up passengers any and everywhere, nullifying the meaning of the no-parking sign and causing traffic congestion in the already crowded town. Your Worship, the lack of order and clear walking space has been a breeding ground for hoodlums preying on unsuspecting pedestrians and customers.
As we near the festive season, the number of roadside vendors will multiply tenfold. In addition, some vendors are hostile and violent.
The problem is that the vendors have been allowed to occupy the sidewalks for years, hence it seems impossible to remove them, some even say they pay the council to vend on the sidewalk. The cat-and-mouse game between the municipal police and the vendors is not effective; something more is needed.
Your Worship, will the vending area at the corner of West Queen Street in front of St William Grant Park that was destroyed by fire some years ago ever be reopened? Is there an area for taxis to drop off and pick up? Is the licensing of handcarts permission to become a nuisance in the town?
I respectfully ask that theses issues be looked into. I look forward for your response in action.
Hezekan Bolton
h_e_z_e@hotmail.com