^

In all my time linked to markets I never saw any massive link to drug trading or a massive organised crime syndicate controlling vendors. More drugs are found and dealt within bar zones than any markets, most westerners relied on bargirls as first step to gaining drug contacts, thais themselves deal more discretely without any need use street vendors .

Same as in many cities around the world, it's gentrification. The poor will be removed in place for expensive condos, malls, and cafes, regardless of local wage conditions. See London, nyc, Paris, etc. It's not unique to Bangkok, although it may hurt the poor more here, who have less resources to adapt. 

 

The area around ploen chit - nana, makkasan, and immediately west from Siam Square (phra nakon) are doomed. Very undeveloped and ripe for rich investors to flatten and rebuild. The future of  urban planning in bkk is most demonstrated in thong lo - phrom pong (or should I use it's supposed name The emDistrict). What happens to the poor and minimum wage majority on these areas is not a consideration.

Edited October 16, 20169 yr by the donger

14 hours ago, halloween said:

How does a stall squatting on a public footpath become a "legal business"? By paying bribes?

By paying a rent or a fee to the administration for the special use of public areas and by legally egistering as a street vending business. Cities over here in Europe have statutes for this sort of business. Doesn't have to be illegal per se. Some sort of order and control is, however, necessary in order to maintain the use of sidewalks for pedestrians. A total ban is probably not the end of the story.

14 hours ago, Drafi said:

By paying a rent or a fee to the administration for the special use of public areas and by legally egistering as a street vending business. Cities over here in Europe have statutes for this sort of business. Doesn't have to be illegal per se. Some sort of order and control is, however, necessary in order to maintain the use of sidewalks for pedestrians. A total ban is probably not the end of the story.

Correct most of the bigger market streets are registered, spots are register on council book to vendors name and the pay monthly fee and have reciepts for this . the legality side may not be as good as what would happen in the west but it was good enough. All that was needed was get rid of the obvious abuse and tidy it up by using only inside of pavements and keeping it more clear near mass foot traffic areas & times.

As other poster points out trend is towards big corporate retail such as emDistrict which is a bigger waste of space and more ripoff than markets in my opinion .  The old way was part of attraction of thailand as can get corporate retail anywhere ...

On 14/10/2016 at 8:13 AM, yellowboat said:

As much as these vendors were a pain, they had viable businesses and sold to locals and visitors.  They had suppliers as well..  Sadly no imaginative solutions were discussed just the iron fist was used.  A sad but common occurrence in Thailand today.

How much tax do they pay?

How often are the "food"  stalls inspected by the health department.......etc....etc

6 hours ago, BuckBee said:

Correct most of the bigger market streets are registered, spots are register on council book to vendors name and the pay monthly fee and have reciepts for this . the legality side may not be as good as what would happen in the west but it was good enough. All that was needed was get rid of the obvious abuse and tidy it up by using only inside of pavements and keeping it more clear near mass foot traffic areas & times.

As other poster points out trend is towards big corporate retail such as emDistrict which is a bigger waste of space and more ripoff than markets in my opinion .  The old way was part of attraction of thailand as can get corporate retail anywhere ...

" keeping it more clear near mass foot traffic areas & times" that's highly amusing, but not as interesting as stalls on the " inside of pavements". Are you suggesting that the owners of shops etc should have their view, window advertising and access blocked by stalls?

^ Point being one side of pavement and ideally inside when permissible , was actually the idea about 18months ago between bma and councils. lot of shop fronts sell their area to stalls of some sort along with power/water etc so nothing highly amusing if expand your thought to common gumption ...

Love sidewalks but also bumping the thread.