Hanoians appear happy with the capital’s neater and more orderly streets after the ban on street vending, which vendors say they have obeyed out of a fear of punishment, not out of concern for the city’s image.
Hanoi officials began inspecting the city’s streets Tuesday to enforce the decision prohibiting street-hawking and peddling.
Several residents and travelers have said they appreciate the more spacious streets as shop owners no longer co-opt the sidewalk and many have moved their makeshift shops into alleys.
Nakamura, a Japanese tourist, said he could push his daughter’s stroller around Sword Lake without having to elbow other pedestrians like he had in the days before the ban.
Resident An in Kham Thien Street said the city had never been so beautiful.
Such beauty would bring more tourists to the city, An said.
Before the ban, the areas around the Saint Paul Hospital and Viet Duc University Hospital were often crowded with a hawkers obstructing the entrances, but now visitors to the hospitals have no problems with street vending.
The ban was approved in January as part of a campaign to improve the city’s image by changing what the government calls “bad habits.”
However, many store owners are following the ban more because they are afraid of penalties than they out of concern for the city’s image.
Hang, a store owner in Hai Ba Trung Street, said she believed that punishment for hawkers caught breaking the ban would be harsh.
She said she must obey the law because she did not want to be fined or have her goods confiscated.
Some makeshift shop owners now move into the alleys when inspectors pass by but bring their products back onto the street as soon as authorities are out of sight.
City inspectors on Tay Son Street said the city would have officials on watch at locations known for crowded street vending.
The citizens would have to be forced to obey the ban at first, said an official from the inspection agency, adding that after some time it should become a good habit.
Source: thanhnien