Council backs plan to relocate vendors in Glodok
Council backs plan to relocate vendors in Glodok
The Jakarta Post
Jakarta
The City Council threw its weight behind West Jakarta
municipality's plan to relocate street vendors in the downtown
area of Glodok to nearby markets, but called on the municipal
administration not to use violence.
"We support the plan. But, we don't want another clash
(between public order officers and street vendors) as what had
happened in Pasar Minggu," said Achmad Suaedy, who chairs the
City Council's Commission A overseeing administrative affairs.
Hundreds of street vendors cluttering the Pasar Minggu bus
terminal in South Jakarta, who refused to be relocated, were
caught in a brawl with public order officers on Aug. 20.
The vendors opposed the relocation plan though the new 8,000
square meters location is only 500 meters away from the terminal,
complaining that the new location are not strategic and therefore
would not attract people to come.
Suaedy asserted that the officers had to try to persuade the
vendors to relocate.
The West Jakarta municipality has been overwhelmed by
complaints from residents as well as businesspeople that the
street vendors occupying road shoulders and pedestrian sidewalks
had caused chronic traffic jams in the area and made customers
reluctant to come.
The administration said earlier that it planned to move the
vendors to a new location before the celebration of the
Independence Day on Aug. 17.
Suaedy said that his commission would summon city market
operator PD Pasar Jaya to discuss the preparation of the markets,
which will be used as relocation sites for the street vendors in
Glodok.
"We heard that the main obstacle to the relocation plan was
that Pasar Jaya had not prepared space in the nearby markets for
the street vendors," he said.
Meanwhile, Mayor Agustinus Fadjar Panjaitan acknowledged that
there were difficulties.
"We need careful preparation to make the relocation
successful. We are preparing space at the Perniagaan and Glodok
traditional markets for the vendors," he said.
The relocation is likely to be done in the next two months.
"We will prioritize the 800 vendors who now occupy Jl.
Pancoran. After that, we will also move other 200 vendors from
Jl. Petak Sembilan," he said.
Glodok was the center of business and cultural activities in
the city in the 19th century under the Dutch administration. The
area is now better known for its poorly maintained buildings,
traffic jams, recurrent flooding, parking problems, street
vendors and heavily polluted rivers.