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Yes or No? Street vendors occupying Jakarta sidewalks
A Supreme Court ruling effectively nullifies a bylaw that allowed the Jakarta governor to allocate selected roads and sidewalks for vendors to run their businesses.
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Pedestrians share limited space with street vendors occupying the sidewalks under the Tanah Abang Skybridge in Central Jakarta on May. 15. (Antara/Indrianto Eko Suwarso)
S
treet vendors currently occupying sidewalks in a number of major business and crowd centers in the capital city have to leave the areas soon following a recent ruling by the Supreme Court that annuls a Jakarta bylaw.
The bylaw had allowed the Jakarta governor to allocate selected roads and sidewalks for vendors to run their businesses.
Following the ruling, the Coalition of Pedestrians has demanded the city administration to evict all street vendors from all sidewalks in Jakarta.
“The city administration should immediately respond to the ruling to avoid conflicts between pedestrians and street vendors in the capital city as the latter now have no legal basis to sell their products on the sidewalks,” coalition head Alfred Sitorus told The Jakarta Post on Tuesday.
Thousands of pedestrians in Jakarta were put in danger as they were forced to walk on busy streets because the sidewalks were occupied by street vendors.
“As much as the city wants to provide spaces for street vendors, it should be able to do so without putting thousands of pedestrians in peril,” Alfred said.
For years, sidewalks in Jakarta have been “conflict zones” between pedestrians and street vendors vying to use the space. Responding to the situation, Governor Anies Baswedan, who took office in 2017, has taken a populist approach by designating certain sidewalks for hawkers.
