BMA bans all street food across Bangkok this year

[TMax]

No longer in just certain areas anymore, they have banned street food in all of Bangkok now, in my view it's just madness.

 

http://www.nationmultimedia.com/news/national/30312543

 

STREET FOOD vendors will disappear from Bangkok by the end of the year in the interests of cleanliness, safety and order, the Bangkok Metropolitan Administration (BMA) says.

In the capital, which is internationally recognised for its street food, famous locations such as Chinatown/Yaowarat and Khao San Road would be cleared of vendors in a bid to beautify Bangkok.

A month after the city was named the finest street food destination in the world by CNN for the second year, the Bangkok Metropolitan Administration (BMA) continued its operation to reclaim the pavements for pedestrians and announced that vendors would be banned entirely from the capital’s streets.

 

“The BMA is now working to get rid of the street vendors from all 50 districts of Bangkok and return the pavements to the pedestrians. Yaowarat and Khao San Road will be our next goal in clearing out illegal vendors,” Wanlop said.

[Alexx]

I'll believe that once I can see it with my own eyes.

[TMax]

From what I've read and heard it's already started in some areas

[ChristianPFC]

Unrealistic. A belated April joke. Would cause as much trouble as changing the side of driving. If they go on, there will be a huge public outcry, could even start a civil war.

 

I applaud the clearing of sidewalk in Silom and some other areas, where only overpriced crap was sold to tourists. (Easy to detect: markets for locals have prices posted. As soon as a wendor wields his electronic calculator and hammers in a number, you know you are going to be overcharged.)

 

But street food is necessary, for millions to get a cheap and quick meal, and for ten or hundred thousands who work as cooks or waiters.

[Gwydion62]

The story is not true.

They are zoning and checking cleanliness, safety etc but street food is NOT banned.

[steveboy]

A few years back they nicely paved some streets near Babylon sauna.  I welcomed the action but in no time the sidewalks were full of vendor stands, plants and other junk.  I wish the street vendors much luck, but sidewalks should be cleared enough to allow one to walk on them throughout instead of having to step on the busy streets.

[vinapu]

, but sidewalks should be cleared enough to allow one to walk on them throughout instead of having to step on the busy streets.

sanitizes version is what we have in our own cities and if Bangkok will start copying Western standards where will be need to travel that far if all exotics will be gone ?

 

For me that the whole point of Bankok allure, delicious food is just a bonus to crowded sidewalks. Can't imagine walking from Tawan to soi Twilight without trying at least 2-3 pieces of pork on bamboo sticks

[steveboy]

sanitizes version is what we have in our own cities and if Bangkok will start copying Western standards where will be need to travel that far if all exotics will be gone ?

 

For me that the whole point of Bankok allure, delicious food is just a bonus to crowded sidewalks. Can't imagine walking from Tawan to soi Twilight without trying at least 2-3 pieces of pork on bamboo sticks

 

In all US downtown of large cities you can enjoy multitude of junk food places.  I thought that the enticement of BKK is the boys. I wish BKK copies the Western standards of city streets, and I wish Western cities would copy the BOYS standards of BKK.

 

In the tens of times I walked between Babylon and Sauna Mania not one time I didn't have to worry about stepping on the street because sidewalks were blocked, and I never thought of trying pork on bamboo sticks.

 

Maybe I'm so ignorant that I don't understand that eating pork on bamboo sticks is worth being run over...

[vinapu]

 

 

 eating pork on bamboo sticks is worth being run over...

some of us were blessed with growing in the cities and don't have problems of navigating crowded sidewalks without stepping on the street.

 

Comparing US  junk food with BKK street fare is blasphemous for me but everybody has own pleasures in life 

[Guest]

Banning street food would never work. It's part of life in Thailand.

 

On the other hand, clearing Silom pavements so people gave space to walk safely is an excellent idea. Even if it has nothing to do with street food.

[Alexx]

I think they might actually be arriving at a sensible compromise, making the sidewalks of main roads more walkable while keeping the food stalls in place elsewhere.

[reader]

From NYTimes

 

HANOI, Vietnam — As strips of tofu sizzle beside her in a vat of oil, Nguyen Thu Hong listens for police sirens.

 

Police raids on sidewalk vendors have escalated sharply in downtown Hanoi since March, she said, and officers fine her about $9, or two days’ earnings, for the crime of selling bun dau mam tom — vermicelli rice noodles with tofu and fermented shrimp paste — from a plastic table beside an empty storefront.

 

“Most Vietnamese live by what they do on the sidewalk, so you can’t just take that away,” she said. “More regulations would be fine, but what the cops are doing now feels too extreme.”

 

Southeast Asia is famous for its street food, delighting tourists and locals alike with tasty, inexpensive dishes like spicy som tam (green papaya salad) in Bangkok or sizzling banh xeo crepes in Ho Chi Minh City. But major cities in three countries are strengthening campaigns to clear the sidewalks, driving thousands of food vendors into the shadows and threatening a culinary tradition.

 

Officials say the campaigns in Thailand, Vietnam and Indonesia are largely aimed at promoting public order and food safety.

In Bangkok, the military junta has been clearing vendors from spots where pedestrians have complained about littering, sidewalk congestion and vermin, officials said, and plans to move some into designated areas that would be more hygienic.

 

“Bangkok wasn’t so crowded and congested” when the 1992 law regulating street vendors came into effect, said Vallop Suwandee, the chairman of advisers to Bangkok’s governor. “But now it is, so we have to reorganize and reorder public spaces.”

According to government data, Bangkok now has fewer than 11,000 licensed vendors, about half the number it had two years ago.

 

Continues

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/04/29/world/asia/sidewalk-food-vendors-hanoi-bangkok-jakarta.html

[steveboy]

some of us were blessed with growing in the cities and don't have problems of navigating crowded sidewalks without stepping on the street.

 

Comparing US  junk food with BKK street fare is blasphemous for me but everybody has own pleasures in life 

 

Since I'm not the size of a cat, I cannot squeeze between the junk that blocks many sideways and not step on the street.

But if you are of such small size, good for you!

Also, if you have wings and can fly over the crowded streets, even better for you.

I grew up in a busy city, but I have the size of a person and no wings.

[vinapu]

 

I grew up in a busy city,

St Olaf, Minnesota?

[ggobkk]

Here's an update via the BBC

 

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-39768764