The Straw Market on Bay Street.
By SANCHESKA BROWN
Tribune Staff Reporter
sbrown@tribunemedia.net
MORE THAN a dozen straw vendors were “evicted” from the Bay Street Straw Market on Friday for delinquent rent payments, according to Esther Thompson, president of the Straw Business Persons Society.
Mrs Thompson told The Tribune yesterday that the vendors were given notices last week that they had three days to pay 75 per cent of their arrears or leave the market.
While admitting that more than 90 per cent of the vendors owe the government in back rent for their stalls in the market, some owing thousands of dollars, Mrs Thompson said the Straw Market Authority should be assisting the vendors during these tough times instead of “putting them out.”
“One of our members owes $1,800,” she added. “She paid a lump sum of $300 and I asked them if she can be on a payment plan where she pays her $35 in rent and then an extra $15 toward her arrears, meaning she will pay $50 a week. But they are saying she has to come up with another $1,000 in order to stay in the market.
“This is a lady that sleeps on the ground, she does not have that kind of money.”
Mrs Thompson claimed that business in the tourist attraction is slow and that vendors are having a hard time making ends meet.
“We have people in this market in terrible situations. Nothing is happening in the Market and we are barely making any money. These ladies had to go, but there will be more people having to leave very soon.
The demand the Authority is placing on the ladies is impossible. It’s like they don’t care. On Friday, 13 persons were affected, but numerous people have been affected. It has now gotten to the point where these people know they don’t have the money so they are packing up, but if they leave they have no way to make the money to pay. What is happening is a disaster.”
Kevin Simmons, Straw Market Authority chairman, confirmed yesterday that the Authority sent letters to some vendors giving them three days notice, but, he said, the letters were sent after at least “five other warning letters” were ignored by the women. He insisted that the Authority is willing to work with the vendors to come to an arrangement for payment of their arrears.
“They received numerous warning letters prior to receiving that final letter,” Mr Simmons said. “We are working with the vendors. It is not the philosophy of this chairman or the minister to put them out. We are not in the business of putting people out of work but they still have a responsibility. We will not work on Mrs Thompson’s terms however, those who are in arrears can come see the Authority and make some sort of arrangement. We have been continuously working with them but rather than call the press, they should speak to us and try to resolve their arrears.”
Mr Simmons refused to say how many vendors were in arrears or how much money was owed.
Last year, more than 70 straw market vendors were suspended from their stalls for unpaid license fees.
In November 2012, according to the former Chairman of the Straw Market Authority Ron Pinder, 141 vendors owed between $500 and $2,170.
The rent arrears stood at $290,000. The rent for a stall in the Straw Market is $35 per week.
Comments
Cornel 10 years, 5 months ago
This is just one more thing to add to the list of items that never get paid. So where are we now?
Stall Rent, Power Bill, Water Bill, Property Taxes, Customs Duty . . . . the list gets bigger and bigger yet the Government is only concerned about adding new taxes and not collecting what is due
TalRussell 10 years, 5 months ago
Hey Comrade "Talkie Show " Darrold here you go again on your TV/Radio show this very moment (a government funded talk show host) carrying the propaganda "love-in bucket" for Comrade Nygard. Does the minister and his management team up at ZNS have no damn shame at all? Darrold what about carrying a "love bucket" for a straw vendor now evicted from her bedroom floor? Oh, yes, it's the same government doing the evicting which writes yours, the minister's and the management up at ZNS's paychecks. Darrold says he is a new loving Nygard fan. Nygard smiled cause the man loves being loved by all we Bahamalanders. In fact Darrold called off a long list of elite Bahamalander's whohe claims have also confessed their love Nygard. I had turn off radio cause I was too afraid of the self promoting crap that was to stream across the airwaves from Comrades Nygard and Darrold. These two Comrades on a taxpayers TV/Radio show - even talked about the Grand Wizards of the Klu Klux Clan? They even told some funny jokes too, like Nygard claiming to be "non confrontational?" Ha ha ha me belly is a jump'in.
henny 10 years, 5 months ago
It's too bad straw vendors have to be evicted but to me I think there are way too many straw vendors. They are in competition with each other, have much the same wares in each stall. It is hard to see how they can they make any money.
TalRussell 10 years, 5 months ago
It matters not, if you voted for PM Christie or not, you must hang your head to speak the truth, cause it MUST be told. It is the poor who are the being forced to pay the way of the rich under PM Christie's PLP government. Comrade under a government's normal course of business it would be considered good business to run the straw market like a business but what bothers me is all the stuff so many well-off companies (foreigners and locals) and individually have gotten away with by the PLP government's grace, like avoided paying the peoples public treasury what they owe often running in the high thousands of dollars - into the many millions. Why come down on woman sleeping on the floor PM when everyday we read of yet another business owing BEC over $100,000 dollars for the light bills and they lights never seem go off and if they do go off, are quickly ordered turned back on? VAT is being intentionally planned to reduce the middle-class to the ranks of the poor. Regularizing of the numbers rackets intentionally has been planned to send the poor down to the ranks of living in dire poverty.
ohdrap4 10 years, 5 months ago
this is not the point, they feel entitled not to pay $35 is nothing, just $5 per day a while ago, when some of them were on the street, they were pay $50, fifity a day for a tent rented from one of the sposkepeople.
it is just the plp free-for-all principle
ADubbs 10 years, 5 months ago
They need to learn to pay their bills! They have that beautiful building to operate from, very close to the cruise ships, and their rent is only $140 a month? WHAT MORE DO THEY WANT?! When you don't pay your rent, you get evicted. It's as simple as that. What the hell do they want anyone to do about the consequence for their failure to pay?
ThisIsOurs 10 years, 5 months ago
The model is unsustainable. They but cheap crap and try to pawn it to tourists at high prices. Tourists are not dumb. There are a million and one tshirt and souvenir stores on Bay St. If we had real straw vendors plaiting bags, hats and dolls, real wood carvers selling their carvings rather than mass produced Made in Taiwan goods, maybe the tourists would appreciate that. I never really understood why this huge expensive edifice was built to house cheap trinkets...and billed as a star attraction on Bay St!! I'll never forget Katie Couric and Al Roker trying to hold in the giggles when discussing the fire at the "World Famous" Nassau Straw Market. How embarrassing.
solejordan 10 years, 5 months ago
so at $35 a week u choose not to pay rent? Then when the bill piles up u get evicted and say oh they aint looking out for the small man since things hard.
PAY YOUR BILLS SIMPLE. stop acting like the government no matter who owes you something.
TalRussell 10 years, 5 months ago
Any guess who is the Crown's Minister For the Peoples Lands? Comrades it seems for this government that it may not be good enough for this PLP cabinet that many of these poor straw vendors are poor because they were born into being poor, now the Christie cabinet seems eager to relegate them down from being simply poor, to being forced to joining the many thousands they Bahamalanders done already living in dire poverty. Just about everyday we hear or read about foreigners and how they obtain the peoples owned Crown Lands for little to no cash paid into peoples public treasury.- yet you evict the very people who voted you back into office - who literally don't have two pennies to scrap together, if their children's lives were dependent upon it. Am I right PM Christie/Crown Minister For The Peoples Lands? PLP Cabinet Ministers ain't it wicket enough how you done dump the poor people down to live in dire poverty with "regularizing" them illegal numbers rackets?
Purcell 10 years, 5 months ago
Having a working business model and not mooching is an alien concept to some Bahamians. If you can't afford the overhead get out of the business, let people who can run theirs. Giving the mooches the unfair advantage of not having to pay rent makes honest vendors feel like idiots.
TalRussell 10 years, 5 months ago
A statement, not a question. Everyday the poor are less welcomed while being pushed aside in our Bahamaland, regardless of who happens to be the current Prime Minister and members of his cabinet. Comrade Purcell yours would be a worthy argument, excepting do we really want to replace the poor evicted straw vendors with business operators holding University Business Degrees? They are already competing against Haitians ... are they not? Are the Chinese there "yet" as vendors? Not paying your $35 stall rent on time is not a criminal offense, punishable by a 2 years stay in a crowded cell up at Her Majesty's Fox Hill (Debtors) Prison, like it certainly is with so many House of Assembly MP's, Senators (reds and Golds) along with Government Officials, who are guilty of not filing their Financial Disclosure Statements. After you have jailed the really guilty, then come back on these hereto Tribune blog pages to plead your case for straw vendors to hold University Business Degrees as a condition of renting a $35 a week stall
ThisIsOurs 10 years, 5 months ago
Don't need a business degree to know commercial space comes at a cost and if monthly rent is more than you can hope to make, the location is wrong for you. If they don't know that simple rule, they don't need a university degree, they need to repeat grade 6.
DillyTree 10 years, 5 months ago
The vendors want the government to "assist them"? You must be joking. How about them assisting the government by paying their bills. They do not have the God-given (or PLP-given) right to occupy the straw market free of charge -- they pay a measly $35 week in rent (mere pennies in comparison to other retailers on Bay St.) and are complaining?
It is the government's fault for not collecting the rent and letting vendors get into arrears, but ultimately, if the vendors want to be there, they need to pay up!
As an aside, I'm not surprised the straw market is doing poorly. The vendors practically chase the tourists down and fight among themselves for business. It is really unappealing and obnoxious. What tourist wants to come into that environment? Perhaps the Minstry of Tourism can give the vendors a lesson on customer service and not to harrass the tourists!
realfreethinker 10 years, 5 months ago
By the way Jones communication owes BEC $106,000.00. when the power was turned off the chairman called and told them to turn it back on.
ThisIsOurs 10 years, 5 months ago
I've come to the conclusion that our "voice" has been misused for 40 years and that is the reason foolishness like this continues. On Election Day we tell our friends, neighbours and coworkers, "you eehn voting? Then you won't have a voice!". My conclusion is, Election Day is too late to exercise a collective voice. That collective voice has to be heard now three years before Election Day to tell the current government that they doing foolishness and need to change track and to let the next government, whomever it may be, know that we eehn going to accept foolishness so don't bring us no jokey candidates or make any jokey appointments.
sheeprunner12 10 years, 5 months ago
The straw market is a PLP enclave like ZNS .............. whats going on?????
TalRussell 10 years, 5 months ago
Holy cow Comrade Real free thinker, if BEC was just collect the reported $206,000 plus penalties in late payments owing from the not so poor Pot cake and Jones, why the government could forgive in excess of "6000" of the $35 a week stall rental payments from struggling Straw Vendors? And, guess what, no University Business Degree is required to make the connection between the PLP government's $206,00 going uncollected against rich folks, whilst a minister of the crown be evicting $35 tenants, any damn clearer?
Amen!
jackflash 10 years, 5 months ago
They need to call Miller 'The Potcake' and get back in....
Publius 10 years, 5 months ago
There are simply too many vendors all selling the same items. The "market" is saturated. That is one of the reasons many of them cannot make any money. Cruise passengers see ports all around the world. Many of them know when they are being sold items that are not native but are mass produced in other countries. The model is not sustainable.
TalRussell 10 years, 5 months ago
Many Comrades believe PM Christie’s government may have been defeated in 2007, all because of a Rolex watch? Voters seldom wrap their heads around big issue but never let go of small things. What effect did Hubert’s uncalled for attack against the Pindling name; have on the results of the 2012 General Elections, all because Mrs. Pindling and the ghost of her long dead husband had been drawn into the campaign by a frustrated Hubert? Even the late PM Pindling after losing the General Elections admitted to underestimating the degree of anger the peoples held against his PLP government. Both PM's Christie and Hubert are political offspring's of Pindling, so you'd think that like Pindling, after they too went down to defeat at the hands of angry voters, them two former law partners would have been quick to exorcized the demon of angering the peoples but they didn't. Governments seldom fall over billion dollar issues but many have fallen over issues that were far less than a $35 a week stall rental price tag. Comrades only an arrogant PM would have made it his governments top priority for the past 2 years, knowing full well that regardless if he's thrown out office on or before 2017, he will as PM along with his cabinet colleagues bring to the the peoples House and pass what has to be the most ill-timed, questionable and poorly drafted legislation ever to hit the floor of the House of Assembly, calling for the “regularization” the illegal numbers rackets, all against the votes of a people you should have been to damn smart to re anger?
USAhelp 10 years, 5 months ago
Its about time pay or get out.
MaLambee 10 years, 5 months ago
Why should they pay? Like I always say, start from the top. They should give the best examples. If people in authority are not paying their property taxes, electricity bills and the like, then we could see where that mind sent comes from. A typical Bahamian would say, if Mr. so and so could get away, why shouldn't I?. Please, nothing will get better until the guys in power start to lead by example. Why should they not have to pay their taxes and the smaller people be forced to.. We all know the results and are reaping the benefit from this system. Very Very undesirable benefits, I may add. This is the root of our problems..unfortunately, the straw vendors may not have friends in high places. Thus for for the lack of $1000 they are kicked to the curb while others with friends in high places can get away without paying thousands of dollars . I am certainly not giving the vendors right.. they should pay. Whats good for the goose?.......
Revolutionary 10 years, 5 months ago
Bahamians, Our country is sick with corruption. The blame climbs up the ladder from person to minister to prime minister, but to find the true culprit, you need only look in a mirror. We know what is happening, yet we do nothing. Some feel they are alone, they have none to face this government with them. Most are scared - scared that if they raise their voice, they will be detained; political power will be exerted on them. If you are fine with what you see around you, what you see happening to this country, stay home the 26th. But, if you see what I see, if you feel as I feel, I ask that you join us on July 26th outside of Parliament for a call for action, for accountability and for justice. Every union, every government employee, every unheard voter, every Bahamian: Your cries have been neglected long enough, let your voice be heard!
wearedone 10 years, 5 months ago
It is time for a revolution in this beautiful country of ours. We need to take a stand against this government. We need protests, marches, anything to show that we are sick and tired of what is being done to us. Why can it be done in other countries but not in ours? These idiot politicians only care about themselves.
ThisIsOurs 10 years, 5 months ago
"Why can it be done in other countries but not ours"? That's a question I'm not going to put on the wind or a wish I'll not ask to be fulfilled. Take a look at why and when it happens in other countries. People there are in serious pain, their dollar worthless, larger part of the population unable to buy food, sectarian violence etc. those protests come out of massive pain. We are not at that point yet and would have to be on the verge of destruction to get there, it would not be a pretty picture, not with the amount of gangs and illegal guns we have on the street. The tipping point isn't far off with the foolish unleadership we have in power today.
Barring utter devastation my opinion is that calls to action on social media will never attract the true mass of people who are fed up, it's simply too hot and we're too used to living and driving in a/c. What might work is a new model of activism, (actually it's an old model that worked quite successfully for Martin Luther King), physical networking. A core group of passionate activists who engage their friends and neighbours and gain a commitment to participate, then those friends and neighbours grab their friends and so on. Work the neighbourhoods, bus people in etc. that "might" work....
Food music and giveaways get a crowd too but typically attracts those interested in a party and those who are too willing to sell their birthright for food and cheap trinkets
digimagination 10 years, 5 months ago
Worth a careful read - seriously! http://www.weblogbahamas.com/blog_baham…
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