Frederick says while the vendors need avenues to earn a living, ensuring the convenience of businesses and citizens is important. He says the Ministry will balance both the interests to attain a suitable compromise.

“One must balance what is happening in the boulevard - the interests of the vendors, versus the interests of those persons who are property owners. I mean, I walked through the boulevard and there was one day I was going to a particular building and I had to traverse two or three tents to find the entrance door to that building. That cannot be fair, it cannot be right,” the Minister observed.

One possible solution on the table is preventing the flow of traffic into the Boulevard, allowing vendors to sell their goods in the open street, leaving the sidewalks clear.

“But I do believe that in the not-too-distant future serious consideration of pedestrianizing the Boulevard [will be had]. So we block the boulevard to traffic, to make the vendors sell on the streets, so that all those sidewalks that are the facade of those business places will remain vacant and not compromise the use of those buildings,” he said.

Cordoning off the Boulevard has been part of talks over the course of different administrations, yet the initiative was never fully pursued.