Uncovering Mexico
Jeremy Schwartz is the Mexico correspondent for Cox Newspapers. He is based in Mexico City.What's on this page?
The entry titled "Clock is ticking for street vendors."
Categories
Commenting is open from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. M-F
More recent entries
Home > Uncovering Mexico > Archives > 2007 > October > 01 > Entry
Clock is ticking for street vendors
It looks like Mexico City might be serious about cracking down on street vendors after all.
Many months after he pledged to rid the historic downtown of the illegal sellers, Mayor Marcelo Ebrard last week removed the first of an estimated 20,000 vendors from blocks west of the Zocalo. The plan is to move the street vendors to indoor markets inside buildings expropriated by the government by Oct. 12.
Vendors have bitterly fought their removal from the streets, arguing their sales will plummet if they are cloistered inside a market. However, the powerful leaders of the vendor associations have cut deals with the city government and it appears their removal from the rest of downtown is inevitable. Whether the street vendors return to their posts after the furor dies down is an altogether different story.
Here’s a picture of Eje Central, Mexico City’s Central Boulevard, a few days after the first removal.
And here’s the same street back in the spring when all manner of computer software and bootleg DVDs were available. Ironically, the other side of the street is still filled with vendors who have yet to be removed.
Comments