And while those are disgruntled employees, earlier this week we spoke to disgruntled vendors at the Digi Park in Belize City. They say their customers can't afford to pay the city's parking meters at the park and neither can they. So it's driving away their business, and making their operations more costly.
Today, the mayor says the one year pilot program experimenting with the parking meters is coming to an end, and he is willing to work with the vendors - but warned that there are no easy solutions:
Bernard Wagner, Mayor of Belize City
"Actually, the pilot project comes to an end ending of March right here and so we will re-asses where we stand. Nothing is written in stone. We understand their situation. I continue to liaise, but the point here is that we are here to serve the residents, we don't have any intention of sending any one of those vendors out of business. Actually, we want them to be successful business and if they have an issue with the parking meters at the end of the pilot project, we re-asses and see how it works. We know it works well on Albert Street, maybe it hasen't work well in the Digi Park area and so we are open for those discussions."
Reporter
"Is if you all are turning a blind eye to what exactly is happening in that area. I don't know if there is anywhere else in the world where at a park they have parking meters."
Bernard Wagner, Mayor of Belize City
"Prior to the parking meters, who were the people that parked in front of the park during the day? Answer me that question? who use to park in front of the park prior to the parking meters? It wasn't visitors there; it was the employees of all those businesses in that area. Actually, it's the same vendors who approached us and say listen, we can't get nobody to come to our establishment to buy, because the entire area is taken up the entire day by employees of the BPOs, of the casinos and when customers did go there to purchase from these vendors, they use to get tickets from our enforcement team. So even now if we decide to do away with the parking meters, I assure you that the following day you will have parking there for all the employees along that stretch and so there would be no access for residents of the city to access those same vendors."
"So listen, we have to know who are our customers. We had that issue here on Albert Street. The bankers they come all day and park, because they come early to work and then they park the entire day. They and the taximen controlled the entire Albert Street. That parking meter works for us out there. It may not have worked at BTL Park, so we go back to the board and we re-asses and probably we move out the meters."
Reporter
"Move out the meters and put in officers and find designated spaces for businesses."
Bernard Wagner, Mayor of Belize City
"So, we are going back to manual. Is that where we are going back to?"
Reporter
"Another allegation is that the officers that the council has out there have bad PR. Have you reviewed that?"
Bernard Wagner, Mayor of Belize City
"We will look at the entire situation. We know the vendors have several complaints, we will look at it, the program comes to an end ending of March, but we will look at it. We don't want to drive the vendors out of business."
Reporter
"You have not only driven the vendors in all honesty and if you've recognized what happen, people have stop going, because life is already hard. There are barely people parked using the meter system."
Bernard Wagner, Mayor of Belize City
"Alright we'll see when we move the meters if business will improve along that stretch. We want it to improve actually."
