Wed, Nov 20, 2002 page10

• Police plague Taipei street vendors

  URBAN NIGHTMARE A slumping economy and rising unemployment have boosted the number of people who eke out a living by selling food on local sidewalks

  • By Joanna Dunne / CONTRIBUTING REPORTER
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  Faced with few employment opportunities, Taipei's street vendors say that they are hard-pressed to turn a profit as they play a cat-and-mouse game with the city police.

  "Any profit I make is eaten up by police citations which I get on a daily basis," 55-year old Li Jiao-kun who runs a small egg-cake (雞蛋糕) stall in Taipei, said yesterday.

  

  Street vendor Li Jiao-kun holds up a handful of tickets that he recently received from Taipei traffic police for violating regulations pertaining to sidewalk use. He was fined for placing his mobile egg-cake stand on the edge of the walk area.

  PHOTO: GEORGE TSORNG, TAIPEI TIMES

  Li, a 20-year veteran of the street, says he barely ekes out a living and has given up on running when he sees the police coming.

  "If the police see us run off they catch us the next time they do their rounds, which will result in confiscation of our carts and equipment. Then how will I make a living?" he said.

  Many more mobile street vendors choose to make a run for it when word spreads that the police are on their way, leaving a few unlucky hawkers left to get the fines.

  Li said he been unlucky one too many times.

  "I have more than NT$570,000 in unpaid fines."

  Li claimed he was overwhelmed with the citations, which double automatically from NT$1,200 to NT$2,400 if not paid within 15 days.

  "If I deduct the amount I have to pay in fines each day, then I don't earn a penny," he said.

  While not strictly illegal, street vending outside a designated area without a city government-issued license violates a range of city ordinances, including sanitary and traffic regulations.

  Wu Wen-tong, 60, who sells spring-onion pancakes (蔥油餅), said that he would gladly take up another form of employment if the opportunity arose.

  "If I could open my own shop, then I would jump at the chance," he said. "But I have to fund my son's college education and put food on the table. Nobody wants to employ someone like me anymore. If I just sat at home and waited for help, then I think my family would probably starve to death."

  Wu is not alone. Currently 5.32 percent of the population or some 531,000 people are out of work.

  Another vendor, a 24-year old surnamed Chang, says he took up selling Indian pancakes (印度餅) streetside two months ago.

  "After I left the army I couldn't find a job and this was the only option," he said. "But business is pretty slack at the moment."

  In the first nine months of the year, 2,460 factories closed, sending many newly unemployed on to the streets to look for work. Street hawkers say this has intensified the competition for those in the business before Taiwan's economy nosedived.

  "The other sellers are taking away my business," one angry street vendor, who declined to be named, said. "I've been doing this for over 20 years, and now the police are trying to crack down on all these other new street vendors. I get about 15 fines a month. How am I supposed to make any money now that I have all these fines to pay?"

  Taipei City Police Department Director Tsao Chin-huei (曹晴輝) said it is the responsibility of the police to issue fines when regulations are broken.

  Tsao, however, acknowledged that the fines appeared to do little to discourage vendors.

  "We have already discussed the issue of increasing the fines to try and get these sellers off the streets," Tsao said. "At the moment [police] simply do not have the manpower to get rid of the vendors."

  "The police have higher priorities, such as fighting serious crime," he said. "It's also not just a police matter, but one for the city government to tackle."

  One enterprising individual, meanwhile, has managed to break out of this vicious circle.

  Ricky Hsie (阿哲), owner of T2 Cafe, a Volkswagen van converted into a mobile coffee shop, was originally vending to young couples out on weekend climbs on Yangminshan.

  "The police were always giving me fines and hassling me," Hsie said. "So I decided to look for something a little more permanent."

  The savvy entrepreneur cut a deal with Nanjing East Road's Eslite bookstore (誠品書店) last month to set up shop on their plot.

  "Now I don't have to worry about fines ... and I'm much more relaxed as a result. I'm now thinking about expanding to Kaohsiung," he said.

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