Guadalajara Mayor Ramiro Hernandez wants to bring a semblance of order to the city center, where the number of unlicensed street vendors has mushroomed in the past two years.
He aims to banish the 600 vendors clogging downtown streets and pedestrian precincts by hawking all manner of easy-on-the-pocketbook toys, bags, backpacks, perfumes, sunglasses, stationery items, cellphone cases and the like. Under Hernandez’s plan, the vendors will be able to choose to ply their trade in any of eight public plazas located in more distant parts of the municipality.
As well as downtown streets, no-go areas for vendors will include the Plaza Tapatia, Plaza Guadalajara, Plaza Liberacion, Plaza de Armas, the Rotonda de los Jaliscienses Ilustres and the Mercado Corona, as well as the areas bordering Guadalajara city hall and the Teatro Degollado.Hernandez said the street vendors will have until the end of November to relocate before police officers will be ordered to remove them by force. He said he hoped it would “not go that far,” and believed his objective could be achieved “through dialogue.”
The number of street vendors in the downtown area has grown by 105 percent in the past two years, according to city hall statistics.
Many vendors have snubbed the opportunity to rent cheap booths in the underground shopping mall constructed in a former car park beneath the Plaza Guadalajara (facing city hall). Conceived five years ago as the answer to the street vendor problem, the mall is unpopular with shoppers and some 70 percent of its stalls lie vacant.
Some resistance from vendors to the mayor’s plan is expected, since the period leading up to Christmas is traditionally the busiest time for sales.
Hernandez also wants to find alternative options for the several hundred indigenous vendors and beggars and who eke out a meager existence on city center streets. Without any place to stay, it is not uncommon to individuals huddled up in doorways of businesses and other buildings at night.
The mayor recognized that relocating the indigenous workers and their children is a sensitive social issue but stressed the need to respect the space of legitimate businesses. He admitted that the municipal government does not have enough shelters to provide accommodation for between 150 and 200 indigenous families who live and work on downtown Guadalajara streets.