Vancouver: Not banning, but experimenting with Street Vending

The city of Vancouver acknowledges the potential of street vending, as a source of income for those with lower income and infusing local ingredients to tight the circles of the local economy. See here:

Food Options to Expand on Vancouver Streets

by BC Brew on January 23, 2011

There’s good news for Vancouver’s street food scene. On Thursday, city council unanimously approved expanding the number of street food vendors. Sixty new locations will be phased in over the next four years with 30 downtown and 30 spread throughout other parts of the city. There will also be a trial from June 1, 2011 to May 31, 2012, where up to 20 mobile food vending permits will be issued that allow for a greater variety of food offerings from mobile vendors.

For continuation: http://urbandiner.ca/2011/01/23/more_street_food/

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Armenia: protests of street vendors against municipal banning

It seems to become a global phenomena: the ongoing banning of street vending off streets, places, footpaths, sidewalks. Protests against the ban are reported from Yerevan, Armenia, 19th January 2011:

Street vendors in Yerevan today gathered outside the Municipality to protest Yerevan Mayor’s decision to ban street vending.

The protesters were chanting, "Shame on you!" "We are hungry," "Mayor, you were not elected by people," "Do not deprive us of our daily bread."

"We demand to legalize street trading. We carry on legal trade and pay taxes in time. We have even placed cash registers. Now they come and say that the trade is illegal," said protester Armen Sargsyan.

Continue here: http://www.a1plus.am/en/social/2011/01/19/vendors

or see here, reported 13th January 2011:

January 13, 2011 | 13:26

The Yerevan Municipality continues its large-scale program of street trading prevention.

The Yerevan Municipality informed NEWS.am that the program is aimed at ensuring the sale of high-quality products to consumers.

“Street traders are offered to trade at nearby markets. A program of opening minimarkets being elaborated now will ensure social guarantees for street traders. We hope for support of traders and consumers,” says a release by the Yerevan Municipality.

http://news.am/eng/news/44378.html

This article here reports about the protest on 19th January 2011: Desperate Citizens Protest New Mayor’s Ban on Street Trade in Yerevan. Interesting is this:

Mayor Karen Karapetian ordered the ban shortly after taking office a month ago. Police began enforcing it this week, clearing sidewalks of people selling a wide range of goods, from agricultural produce to construction materials.

It seem that, again, on the back of the street vendors the authority and ‘strength’ of a new administration is exercised – although there has been contacts, negotiations and recognition long before, see what the leader in the first article above has said. (And compare tso the article of Jonathan Shapiro Anjaria, what he has written about street hawking and public space in Mumbai: see here

And here another, larger, article on street vending in Armenia, Yerevan. The article is hosted on the website of AmCham, the American Chamber of Commerce in Armenia.

The Joy and Misery of Street Trading

Alexander Aramyan

The Soviet empire with all its strict laws, susceptibility to punitive and compressive functions, and a great number of controllers and inspectors was still not able to eradicate street trading in Armenia. Even before independence, vendors of sunflower seeds, chewing gum and children’s candies could be found throughout Yerevan and other cities. It is no coincidence that after independence was gained and the large factories were shut down one after another, street vendors began popping up like mushrooms; a new type of business emerged in Armenia, and was known as “table trading.”

Continue here: http://www.amcham.am/index.cfm?objectid=874316F0-D13F-11DF-A7CD0003FF3452C2&pg=2

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