JP/Aditya Bhagas

“Flowers of life/Bountifully growing on sidewalk/Flourishing wild, everywhere/Furious steps approaching/Destroying fragrance of flowers/You stand still, powerless/My flower/Wild flower/My flower/Sidewalk flower.”

Fans of Iwan Fals would be familiar with the lyrics of “Bunga Trotoar” (Sidewalk Flower) on street vendors and the frequent threat of raids against them.

A recent Supreme Court ruling annulled a Jakarta bylaw that allowed street vending in favor of individual plaintiffs of the Indonesian Solidarity Party (PSI). Proponents of the ban cited at least two reasons: First, street vendors disturb other people’s right to use the sidewalk, primarily pedestrians. Second, street vendors commercialize sidewalks for their own economic benefit at the expense of others’ access.

When I reflect on how to make a good city, the contestation between street vendors and pedestrians is puzzling. Instead of fighting, they should be forming a coalition, because pedestrians and street vendors have a common goal.

Street vending is common in various urban centers including in Southeast Asia. Street vendors “go where customers are” — known as jemput bola, literally “fetching the ball”. Street vendors depend on their proximity to potential buyers, to meet customers’ needs and to lure people with their goods. Consequently, public places with large concentrations of people or heavy traffic are prime areas for street vending. Nevertheless, it is too simplistic to view street vending as selfish profit-making commercialization of sidewalks.

Public spaces are shared spaces that are accessible by everyone from all walks of life. Public spaces are not only functional, but also carry ritual activities that can contribute to building meaningful bonds among of those sharing the space as a community. These activities may range from mundane daily routines to seasonal events. Hence, sidewalks as public spaces are not only functional, but also social and cultural, as they help people to experience the city.

Walking on the sidewalk, therefore, is not only to get from point A to B, but is about experiencing the city. Pedestrians with a purpose would prioritize that purpose, such as to get to the workplace. However, some may also need to grab a late breakfast, get some snacks to munch during coffee breaks, or get a newspaper. In a study under the Southeast Asia Neighborhoods Network (SEANNET), the Manila team revealed some street vendors in the old Escolta area have regular customers who are office workers. My own study in Jakarta confirmed that street vendors also coexist with big establishments, such as an office building or shopping mall, because the vendors provide affordable food and other goods, such as snacks, tissues and cigarettes, for workers who may not be able to afford to shop in the mall.

Problems emerge when public spaces are contested — when one social group feels threatened by another, which is why public spaces are regulated by commonly agreed terms. Unfortunately, access to regulating urban spaces is unevenly distributed, including in Jakarta. As a result, the built environment of the city reflects advantages for those having more power, and disadvantages for those with less power. The government could intervene to induce more balance, but critical scholars have argued that it often perpetuates power imbalance. In a book published in 2004 with the same title as Iwan Fals’ song, "Bunga Trotoar", the team from the Jakarta Residents Forum (Fakta) wrote: “Many people see the presence [of street vendors] as the source of the problem: dirtiness, ugliness and disorder.” Hence, the image of a “well-maintained” public space is often associated with removal of street vendors, disregarding their social, cultural and economic roles in the shared space.

In Jakarta, amidst this power imbalance, sidewalks are disappearing, or are inconsistent. Such limited and incomplete provision of sidewalks eventually triggers and perpetuates competition between street vendors and pedestrians. In some extreme cases, street vendors may block the whole sidewalk or street so that no others can pass. Rather than pointing to lack of regulation or law enforcement, it is more accurate to see this as lack of access to affordable strategic spaces and opportunities to make a living. While urban spaces are dominated by the politically and economically powerful, pedestrians and street vendors are fighting each other for limited sidewalk space as crumbs of this imbalanced spatial domination.

Regulations to uphold sidewalks as public spaces do not necessarily mean banning street vending. There are many possibilities of accommodating both street vendors and pedestrians. In fact, street vendors can be the “eyes on the street” to increase pedestrian safety, as opposed to walking on an empty sidewalk. In my observation in Vietnam’s Ho Chi Minh City with SEANNET, house and shop owners may engage with street vendors in front of their buildings to mutually benefit each other. In Singapore, street vendors are regulated by the government, not banned from sidewalks. In Escolta, Manila, there are street vendors who are supported by the building owners with food and water because the building owners wanted specific regular vendors to occupy spaces in front of their buildings. The result of such interactions, no matter how “commercial” it might be, is a humane experience of walking on the sidewalk.

These experiences remind me of the lyrics of Iwan Fals’ song, not to romanticize street vendors, but to point out that street vending is a part of city life that contributes to meaningful experiences of walking. Familiar faces and vendors that are mutually supporting pedestrians and building owners give richer experiences of walking in the city, making it not just simply a faceless and asocial walk.

Therefore we should not easily take sides in the "conflict" between street vendors and pedestrians, because the conflict is artificially driven by uneven access to space. Why should we be satisfied by sanitizing sidewalks and other public spaces from street vendors? Again, it would make sense for pedestrians to form a coalition with street vendors to demand more sidewalks, rather than to fight each other. More efforts should be focused on getting not just more sidewalks but also more spacious sidewalks, so that they can be truly shared public spaces.

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Senior lecturer at the Singapore University of Social Sciences, urban sociologist and coordinator of the Southeast Asia Neighborhoods Network

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