How is it that informal mechanics openly flouting city bylaws are able to operate with seeming impunity bar halfhearted rare warnings from Metro Police and no subsequent enforcement?
The proliferation of illegal motor repair operations in North End is driving out legitimate businesses and scaring away customers.
There is little to no parking for those who do still venture to the area, with most of the customer parking lots and parking bays now extensions of the illegal operations and taken up by vehicles that don’t move out of them the whole day.
Street corners have been turned into dump sites, stormwater drains are blocked by discarded car parts that litter the pavements and oil stains mar the roads and entrances of legitimate businesses.
Some of the broken down or damaged vehicles have been parked outside for months.
Though the Metro Police apparently did “a sweep” two years ago and threatened to tow away vehicles being worked on illegally outside, nothing has changed.
One business owner said the place was filthy and customers were too afraid to go there any more. After 10 years, he is throwing in the towel and pulling out of the area.
According to the owner of a home décor design business, in 20 years the police only conducted two operations in the area.
“All the municipal lines we have been given either ring for 30 minutes and no-one answers or, when they do pick up, they tell us there are no vehicles to send out,” he said.
He said many businesses had shut shop because the street had turned into an oil strip while adjacent roads resembled scrapyards.
Though the municipal spokesperson says that “planning is under way for a co-ordinated joint operation to address compliance within all mechanical workshops operating in the area” and that “the illegal encroachment of pavements will not be tolerated”, this has been going on unabated for years with no real action by the municipality or visible results.
Will this be yet another short very public blitz against offenders in response to the complaints, with no real follow-through and things sliding back to the way they were after the hullabaloo has died down?
Or will the metro be shamed into finally making a concerted effort to clean up the area — and then making sure it stays that way?
Time will tell.
The Herald
Rein in these rogue mechanics to save legitimate businesses
None
Image: WERNER HILLS
How is it that informal mechanics openly flouting city bylaws are able to operate with seeming impunity bar halfhearted rare warnings from Metro Police and no subsequent enforcement?
The proliferation of illegal motor repair operations in North End is driving out legitimate businesses and scaring away customers.
There is little to no parking for those who do still venture to the area, with most of the customer parking lots and parking bays now extensions of the illegal operations and taken up by vehicles that don’t move out of them the whole day.
Street corners have been turned into dump sites, stormwater drains are blocked by discarded car parts that litter the pavements and oil stains mar the roads and entrances of legitimate businesses.
Some of the broken down or damaged vehicles have been parked outside for months.
Though the Metro Police apparently did “a sweep” two years ago and threatened to tow away vehicles being worked on illegally outside, nothing has changed.
One business owner said the place was filthy and customers were too afraid to go there any more. After 10 years, he is throwing in the towel and pulling out of the area.
According to the owner of a home décor design business, in 20 years the police only conducted two operations in the area.
“All the municipal lines we have been given either ring for 30 minutes and no-one answers or, when they do pick up, they tell us there are no vehicles to send out,” he said.
He said many businesses had shut shop because the street had turned into an oil strip while adjacent roads resembled scrapyards.
Though the municipal spokesperson says that “planning is under way for a co-ordinated joint operation to address compliance within all mechanical workshops operating in the area” and that “the illegal encroachment of pavements will not be tolerated”, this has been going on unabated for years with no real action by the municipality or visible results.
Will this be yet another short very public blitz against offenders in response to the complaints, with no real follow-through and things sliding back to the way they were after the hullabaloo has died down?
Or will the metro be shamed into finally making a concerted effort to clean up the area — and then making sure it stays that way?
Time will tell.
The Herald
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