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Street vendors: faced with exasperated local residents, cities are trying to act
In Paris, as in Lyon, local residents are annoyed by the street vendors’ business, which makes noise and attracts trouble. How to fight against these illicit markets? The 8 p.m. + investigated. – (France 2)
In Paris, as in Lyon, local residents are annoyed by the street vendors’ trade, which makes noise and attracts trouble. How to fight against these illicit markets? The 8 p.m. + investigated.
On the makeshift stalls, everything can be bought: clothes, shoes, food, cigarettes… In several cities, certain streets have become illegal open-air markets. Street vendors fuel traffic that is sometimes violent. How did these places become hell for local residents? For several years, a resident of the 18th arrondissement of Paris has seen her neighborhood occupied by street vendors. A permanent presence as soon as she leaves her home, which has become difficult to bear. “Public space is entirely occupied by men. They don’t attack us, but they eventually push us around. And then you have to be careful because they will fight each other“, she says.
Police understaffed
If the trafficking takes place in front of everyone, filming it remains complicated. The sellers are set up along a street, their goods occupy all the public space. Some even offer curbside fittings. However, a few meters away, the police are present, but already busy with another check, and too few in number to dislodge the sellers. Faced with the fed up of local residents, some municipalities are toughening fines against sellers, while others are taking more radical measures.