Senayan vendors uncertain over relocation
Leony Aurora, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
Uncertainty still looms over hundreds of street vendors who used to do business in the east parking lot of Bung Karno Sports Complex in Senayan, Central Jakarta.
Kicked out of the parking area before Idul Fitri, many have returned to their hometowns and the rest have moved to the streets and sidewalks in front of the sports complex's west plaza and opposite nearby Hotel Atlet Century Park.
A vendor in front of the west plaza told The Jakarta Post on Tuesday that on Nov. 15, he received a letter from the sports complex management saying vendors could no longer use the parking lot as their business ground and that they would be relocated to an area within the complex.
"The letter didn't specify when or where, though," he said.
The sports complex management's director of infrastructure, Mahdar, said that inside the sports complex, four areas -- parts of the east and south parking lots and areas in front of the Jakarta Convention Center (JCC) and near the beach volleyball court -- were being prepared to accommodate some 300 vendors.
"They will be ready by January or February 2004," said Mahdar, and for the time being, no vendors were allowed to operate.
More than 1,000 vendors used to operate in the complex, selling food, drinks, music or video compact discs, clothes, shoes and other goods.
"Only the ones selling food and drinks can stay," Mahdar said.
The rest were viewed as having greater capacities to move, he said.
The majority of vendors used to occupy the 80,000-square-meter east parking lot, which is now being converted into an urban forest. The Rp 20 billion (US$2.35 million) project involves planting about 500 trees and excavating 80 artesian wells.
Areas designated for vendors will be divided into nine-square- meter numbered lots, and only registered vendors can operate there.
"They don't have to pay rent," said Mahdar. A small sanitation fee would be charged for maintenance and upkeep of the vendor lots.
The word on the street, however, says otherwise.
"Only well-to-do vendors will be able to pay and stay. Poor ones, like us, will have to go," said one food vendor who used to pay a Rp 5,000 daily sanitation fee at the east parking lot.
Predicted to be finished by April 2004, the lot's regreening project is going on schedule and is 20 percent complete. Drainage pipes were being installed on Tuesday when the Post visited the site.
No significant development could be seen in the areas reserved for vendors, however -- only paving blocks piled up in the south parking lot, while the area in front of the JCC was still full of parked motorcycles.