My friends in retail, who saw the Police, Public Works, Bureau of City Inspector and the Land Department, on inspection on Palm Beach, were initially pleased to see that finally the free-for-all is looked at and inspected.
In recent years the proliferation of kiosks and makeshift, under-the-tree businesses, has become a real economic threat to legitimate establishments with payrolls, permits and licenses, caving under the burden of bureaucratic red tape and the already sky high CODB, cost of doing business, in Aruba.
So, a delegation of law enforcing agents swept through Palm Beach and wrote 45 citation, in just a few hours.
In general, all kiosks on leased government land are illegal.
All kiosks on property land have to be licensed and approved, just like any other business.
Above all, all businesses have to respect the fact that sidewalks require a minimum width of five feet if set back from the curb, any width less than this does not meet the minimum requirement for people with disabilities, and because walking is a social activity, two people have to be able to walk side by side. Duh.
You already know that this is impossible under Texas de Brazil and at the South Beach Centre, where the shanty shacks begot shanty shacks, all by the same mother and father since they all carry the exact same merchandise.
Anyway, I read the article about the permit control carefully, again.
My hope was trashed.
The mission was an attempt to help legalize the existing situation and issue permits, against fees, to better organize the retail jungle.
The kiosk-owners had three days to show up at DIP with some docs, any docs, to help them start the legal process; Ok some sidewalk spaces will be cleared in the process, maybe, but don’t hold your breath that the situation of make-shift retailers on Palm Beach will improve.
The directive is to normalize/stabilize the situation, not to clean up.
