As street vendors in Jakarta are often blamed for causing traffic congestions and littering the city, some foreigners see street vending as an amazing culture if the vendors are well organized.

'€œJakarta has a lot of street vendors. It'€™s amazing because people can eat nasi goreng [fried rice] or fried chicken anywhere. It'€™s really nice; I can meet local people and try different food in one area, such as Jl. Sabang [in Central Jakarta],'€ Reuben Blackie, a Londoner, said in a public discussion on Monday.

Blackie, an urban project planner in London who is a volunteer in the Rujak Center for Urban Studies, said he was very interested in studying public spaces and informal aspects such as the operation of street vendors in Jakarta.

He told an International Joint Research Workshop called '€œInteraction+Intersection: Jakarta at the Crossroads'€ at the Tarumanagara University in West Jakarta that small businesses like street vendors were potential assets to attract tourists.

At the six-day event, jointly organized by the Rujak Center, Tarumanagara University and University of Cambridge'€™s Architecture Department, architecture students and academics gathered to find the best idea to turn Jakarta'€™s street level spaces into a much more pleasant environment for daily interactions and the city into a much more livable space.

Blackie said that the operation of street vendors was a culture which was increasing in cities of other countries. Marrakech of Morocco, for example, had a huge street food area where tourists can enjoy many delightful choices of food.

Those cities, he said, were trying to develop the potential of their street food vendors to attract tourists.

However, some other cities controlled the operation of street vendors very tightly, he said.

'€œIn Singapore, for example, many street vendors are integrated in a neat food court. It'€™s a good thing if we see the aspect of food hygiene, but I think it lacks traditional culture'€ he said.

According to him, Jakarta has an excellent opportunity to integrate street vendors in public spaces in order to maintain and promote its culture, attract tourists and provide economic opportunities for vendors.

He said that based on his research, vendors operating on Jl. MH Thamrin and Jl. Jendral Sudirman in Central Jakarta could meet the demand of market segments like train commuters, office workers and taxi drivers. But because the spaces were extremely limited, many vendors had to occupy streets which led to congestions at pinch points.

'€œThe current trend is that outdoor public spaces are tightly controlled, making street vendors excluded,'€ he said.

Felipe Hernandez from Cambridge University said in his keynote lecture that street vendors were part of a city'€™s landscape and identity.

He suggested that instead of wasting money to keep street vendors away, the Jakarta government should try to gain from them by making them attractive tourism objects.

Chairman of the Indonesia Street Vendor Association'€™s Jakarta branch Hoiza Siregar said recently that the city had about 150,000 street vendors with estimated total sales of Rp 225 billion (US$20.1 million) per day. Out of those vendors, only 32,783 were registered as members of her association.

Street vendors generally set small profit margins of no more than 20 percent in their efforts to attract customers, she said.

She said that most of the street vendors, generally the backbones of their families, usually chose their jobs after being laid off or dismissed by their employers. (ian)

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