Street vending in Mérida’s Historic Center is suffocating established businesses, whether in shops or in the markets themselves. While shop owners complain that the market system has ceased to be a space for promoting established commerce, for street vendors and their leaders, the Center seems to have become an exclusive gold mine.
Business owners point out that the unchecked growth of street vending is due to a lack of control that directly benefits street vendors and their leaders. They argue that while informal commerce expands, established businesses must complete administrative procedures and paperwork even to paint or remodel their spaces.
Business owners pay high taxes, salaries, and rents in a city saturated with thriving street markets, even in the Historic Center during holidays, disrupting any economic balance and leaving traditional businesses completely vulnerable, they denounce.
Source: solyucatan
