In Housing Board neighbourhood centres, on the walkways that line the shops, one can see red or yellow boxes painted on the ground. These are specially marked-out outdoor spaces which the shops can lease from their respective town councils for between $100 and $200 a month, and in turn rent them out to small stallholders for about $1,500 or more.
These boxes are a good idea. They help the shops recoup some of their rental costs, and provide a legitimate space for stallholders to hawk their wares. The makeshift stalls add colour and vibrancy to the neighbourhood centres, giving them a bazaar feel. The outdoor spaces are even more critical in these recessionary times when HDB shops can use all the help they can get, and hard-hit individuals can set up a stall and do business for a fraction of the rent that shops have to pay.
Both shops and tenants must abide by town council rules, such as no cluttering of the walkways. But
one rule which makes life difficult for the shopkeepers is that the tenants must sell more or less the same things as the main shops. Finding a tenant for the shopfront is already hard enough, and to find one who sells the same goods just makes it a lot harder. Which is why, despite the fines they have to pay, shopkeepers at most neighbourhood centres continue to flout the rule. Or they get around the ruling by displaying in their shops some of the goods that their tenants sell.
The town councils should scrap the rule. It is counter-productive and serves no discernible purpose. The only important thing here is that there should be no clutter, which is a fire hazard.
The Urban Redevelopment Authority should also consider replicating this neighbourhood feature in non-HDB estates, to make different corners of the island come alive. There will inevitably be some messiness, but that is what makes a place vivid and colourful.
Source: Sunday Times, 12 July 2009
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