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Anybody get caught up in or see any of the actions reported in this news story?




Street Vendors Continue To Terrorize Downtown Merchants

For the second day in a row, merchants along the boulevard and other avenidas in downtown San José were terrorized by street vendors, who are protesting the actions of the municipality to allow them to sell their wares.

And again for a second day, although without an form organization, a group of vendors forced many merchants to shut their doors in fear of being vandalized.

The merchants are denouncing the inaction of the police to control the situation.

Yesterday's action by the street vendors occurred around 4pm, while on Wednesday the action began at noon and continued for the better part of the afternoon.

The protests are a result of the tough action by the municipal police who issued some 400 tickets to street vendors between Monday and Tuesday of this week.

In addition to the tickets, police confiscated merchandise ranging from pirated CD's to crates full of fruits and vegetables.

Speaking for the municipality, Rafael Arias said that the police action is part of a plan to "clean up" the downtown core and said the action will continue, the municipality will not bow down to the demands of the street vendors.

The Municipalidad de San José ran almost decade long battle to rid the streets of the downtown core for vendor stands that blocked many of the sidewalks along the downtown area and also the cause traffic congestion.

Following years of confrontation between police, vendors and actions in court, the municipality was finally able to rid of all the impromptu stands and clear the sidewalks again.

What is happening today is much of what happened then, save that the street vendors set up shop on a piece of plastic or bed sheet to hawk their ware from the sidewalk floors.

The situation at times is so that there isn't room on the boulevards or sidewalks for pedestrians, vendors only moving at the presence of municipal police.

However, the action of the last couple of days has turned violent.

In addition to terrorizing merchants with threats of vandalism, vendors have pelted police cars with rocks and physical confrontation with police.

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The difference between a Sea Story and a Fairy Tale is that a Fairy Tale starts out 'Once Upon a Time..' and a Sea Story starts out 'This is no Shit...'

(export version only, some restrictions may apply, some assembly required, not valid where the sun don't shine...

if you live in the states of Poverty, Darkness or anywhere outside of The Blessings of Civilization Trust, Inc...other rules may apply)

last trip I was able to see the san jose street people in full action......there were a group of people right in front of the mc d"s selling the crap they sell.....anyway I was sitting there enjoying the ticas walking by....I heard what I thought was a flute or some type of call.....2 seconds later every seller swooped up the crap they were selling and ran away (took seconds ) about 2 mins later a group of police came walking by.....10 mins later they were back in the same spot !!!

Here's a link to the story on expat: http://www.usexpatcostarica.com/2010/04/street-vendors-protest-san-jose/

I walked down Avenida Central (the pedestrian walk) and there were 0 street vendors other than the cigar guys. How long they will stay gone is an open question. Maybe forever, maybe not for long.

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"The only normal people are those you don't know very well." Joe Ancis

The vendors were out last week and this past weekend when I was there, and I didn't see any kind of issue with the merchants.

There were plenty of police standing and walking around, but I didn't see any street vendors being hassled.

I didn't expect them to be absent for long. It's not like they are moonlighting from Intel or their jobs at the bank. This is their sole source of income, in most cases. The cops don't want another riot and neither do the merchants. Stalemate.

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"The only normal people are those you don't know very well." Joe Ancis

The sad thing is that all merchants on the street get tarred with the same brush. For instance, there is a really talented artist/portraitist who sets up shop in front of the News Cafe (sits on a blue bucket) notable by his absence last week. Other artists seem to be in the same boat--and it's seriously leaky, as artists tend to be gentler souls. But as Brother Bilko and others said/intimated--it's gonna get ugly.

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"A man accustomed to hear only the echo of his own sentiments, soon bars all the common avenues of delight, and has no part in the general gratification of mankind"--Dr. Johnson
"Amen, brother"-ED

Yeah.....I saw this same thing happen last year. It was amazing to see how fast these vendors could "pack up shop and disappear." It was like dominoes....one after the other, on down the line.

good place to buy some nice t-shirts to bring back as gifts. I know that artist, very good paintings.

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Livin' & Lovin' in Key Largo....oh....And the one in The Keys, too!

Correct, there are regular Policías and Policía Municipal. Policía Municipal are the ones who hassle the vendors.