Mahogany Street - it's like the new downtown…pass through any time of the night or day, weekend or weekday and you'll see the street bustling, throbbing with life. And so it should be, Mahogany is the gateway to all of Lake Independence which fans out for miles heading west. On this single street you can find countless food shacks and stalls, innumerable Chinese grocery stores, plenty pastry shops, a few DVD stores, a couple barbers and beauty salons, a school and two places of worship. Indeed, Mahogany is like a main street, but now BEL says 23 of the vendors along the busy thoroughfare have to move by the end of the year.
That's because the vendors are under what's called the 115 KV line - those double lamppost installations that bring power into the city.
And the light company which grosses 180 million dollars a year - won't pay anything towards the relocation. We went out to the area today and got a small sampling of opinion from 3 of the 23 who are being told to move.
This is the 115 kv line - it runs parallel to Mahogany street and the corridor beneath is cluttered with stalls who are paying rent to the city council. BUT now BEL has given written notice to the owners of 23 of these stalls that they have to move because it is a safety hazard - and they have City Hall's support.
Prudence Wade, Mahogany Street Vendor for 13 years
"The only persons who can tell me I cannot be here at this point in time - It would have to be city council or the owner of this building."
Phillip Willoughby
"The matter at hand with Mahogany Street is that the vendors are below the high tension kv lines, which possess health risk and it's a hazardous environment for vendors to be operating in."
Wiley, The Exotic Barber
"The hydro is not doing anybody wrong; people are under the hydro for ages, and what happen to them? Nothing. If the hydro is to kill us, that is how we should die. You can't stop noting out here, what is to be, got to be."
Phillip Willoughby
"Whilst they control the lines, and so forth. We control the reserve property that we lease to the vendors who pay a fee to us."
The vendors got their notices from BEL two weeks ago and say they aren't about to move:
Jules Vasquez
"They are saying you have to move by the end of this year are you prepared to do that?"
Prudence Wade, Mahogany Street Vendor for 13 years
"I will not, they will have to relocate me somewhere else."
Jules Vasquez
"They are not offering to relocate you they are not offering to re-compensate you. They are saying as of January 1st next year you will not get any electricity hook up, if you do not move."
Prudence Wade, Mahogany Street Vendor for 13 years
"Well, they have already taken my electricity and everything."
Jules Vasquez
"So you don't presently have electricity?"
Prudence Wade, Mahogany Street Vendor for 13 years
"No."
Jules Vasquez
"So you can survive without?"
Prudence Wade, Mahogany Street Vendor for 13 years
"Exactly, because I don't work at night."
Clinton Tucker, Ther's Restaurant
"I think its total nonsense you know, to try and relocate and nobody has anywhere really to relocate, you understand, so I feel like all of them should get together and find out where the people are supposed to go. Instead of just bombarding the people with a letter like that, you understand. They said we are responsible for moving from out of the area, but nobody don't try to relocate nobody from out of the area or any stuff like that, to find anywhere for the poor people to go, because these are poor people business, you understand. People are trying hard just to make a day to day sacrifice."
Wiley, The Exotic Barber
"All the days of our life, we work, we try and do our best, we to keep the pride, and we try holding the peace everything in our life. So we don't see why they will try to come and try to hold us down. If you will move us from here, you will have to give us somewhere, because we will not move just like that."
Jules Vasquez
"Now these people are saying if you don't relocate to another address by January first 2012, they will refuse to supply power to any building under the 115 line, which is you."
Wiley, The Exotic Barber
"Well, I think they have a problem because, they are just making a problem because, all of us will get together and they can't stop us from moving. They can't move us from off this place at all, because it's not them that gave us this place. We are under their line, but it's not affecting us."
Jules Vasquez
"But what they can do is take out the electricity."
Wiley, The Exotic Barber
"Well, if they want to take out the electricity, fine. We will find a way to get electricity someway."
That's the kind of hardened resistance BEL and City Hall are up against
Jules Vasquez
"These are not rich people, relocating for them is upheaval, relocating for anyone, but particularly for poor persons. Nobody is offering any compensation; nobody is saying we will help you with this."
Phillip Willoughby
"Well, regrettable that is so, but what the council will do on our part, will assist them with the relocation to the deadline to move."
Jules Vasquez
"Specify by assist, you will give them a vehicle, you will give them money?"
Phillip Willoughby
"We will try our best with what we have to assist them with moving to a new location."
Jules Vasquez
"You mean wheels?"
Phillip Willoughby
"Whatever, it takes. BEL will then reconnect them and do all the electrical services they provide for them."
And while that is specifically vague - these vendors are aware that for years they have been paying both city hall and BEL, and no one complained.
Wiley, The Exotic Barber
"But, they are not supposed to come with those kind of option, to try and destroy us, they should be reasoned with us. They make all this money, all right, they want us to move, get somewhere for us and we are pleased, because they have money. It's not like they don't have money, because I paid you the whole of 45 years of my life electricity, so I don't try to owe them."
Clinton Tucker, Ther's Restaurant
"They come they and took everyone's money; they didn't have a problem with nobody to relocate. Well I think they should come and try to compensate, like I said work with the government to try and relocate, instead just given us this letter and pushing us off of the place like that, you understand."
Wiley, The Exotic Barber
"If all of us get together, you think that can move us? They can't move us, and I will make all of us get together. I will go and talk to everybody and we will "step in the city council face".
Phillip Willoughby
"What BEL will do is disconnect them, if they don't opt to move. If they remain and want to stay there after they are disconnected, then it will be a decision for our area rep, and the council to decide and see how we work with our constituency."
Responding to our request for comment today BEL issued a statement saying it is concerned about the safety of the public as there have been several fatal incidents on much lower voltage lines. The company is also concerned about the safety of our linemen when they have to access the line. It adds that the Company's license gives it the authority to deny service where safety is compromised. They further state that when the line was built, there was no development in the area but the City Council gave permission for persons to operate in what BEL calls the public right of way, which is immediately under or next to the 115 kV line.
There are reports that at least one offending structure's existence predates the erection of the 115kv lamp-posts - and we'll be looking into that.
The line was installed in 1995.
