Valletta Rehabilitation Committee chairman on the subject of the market
Published:
February 14, 2015 at 1:59pm
He’s right in that now Merchants Street has been paved, pedestrianised and closed to traffic, the market is an eyesore there too.
He’s also right in saying that markets (nowadays) should not be something that you have to walk through to get where you want to go, but places that you go to if you want to.
My own view is that if the market were held just once or twice a week, it wouldn’t be a problem having it in a central location (though not actually IN the Piano scheme). The problem lies in the fact that it is a daily market.
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The .monti’ hawkers are always complaining that they have families to feed on what they earn. Is it possible that a hawker who works half days is able to make so much money ?
They do, or used to. I can say that back in the day, during the 90s, they used to make around Lm40k – Lm60k. This was before the emergence of various discount stores across the island and internet shopping.
Is the sum mentioned profit or sales?
If their products are so good, then people would go to them no matter where they are.
Losing votes will always be the deciding factor when Muscat is faced with a problem that needs his decision.
The market problem, which is of his own making, will be a lose lose situation.
The decision will be taken when Muscat will phatom the least damaging, from keeping the market in front of parliament or stuffing the stalls in the other part of Ordnance Street.
Muscat has no principles and he will do anything to win votes.
The days of open markets are gone. Saying that the hawkers make their daily living from their market stall is just a big lie. In fact some often call it a day and do not turn up.
That’s total nonsense. It’s junk that people don’t want and not markets.
[Daphne – Actually, it’s the other way round. It’s junk that people want. Flea markets are massively popular and the Valletta-type of market is dying out.]
The situation is not only serious in Valletta, ask residents who have their cars locked up in garages where hawkers block the streets legally during market days, example Birkirkara around St Helens church. They started with one street, now they reached as far as the by pass.
Many people are happy to walk through markets, but not ‘that’ kind of market.
Kenneth Zammit Tabona voted for this mess.
I’ll give him the benefit of the doubt here.
The previous Nationalist administration never took a clear stand against hamallagni. So for thousands of voters, it was a case of ceteris paribus.
Simon Busuttil seems to have taken that stand. And that’s good. Because voters now have a clear choice.