Livelihood Reports Al Amrikeya Area - Final Assessment | Page 151

representative of Syrian businesses in AAA
is Rosto, which has grown into a chain with
branches in several other locations.
c) Mall Management
Mall management and the condition of the
malls are important factors affecting busi-
ness life in the area. Mall owners have prac-
tically disappeared after selling most shops
and flats. Hence, “occupants unions” were
formed, by election, in all malls to represent
people who currently occupy the mall who
have interest in up-keeping the property.
The occupants unions contract third parties
for property management; these are usual-
ly individuals and in rare cases companies.
They are responsible for providing a host of
services to the occupants, which include se-
curity, cleaning and garbage collection from
flats (not shops), maintenance of building
utilities (electricity and water networks, el-
evators, plumbing, surrounding sidewalks as
stipulated in their contracts). Mall managers
perform many other roles: mediation and
problem solving among tenants and with
the authority, law and internal regulations
enforcement, maintenance, accounting and
cash management.
The cost of such services is covered in most
cases through the collection of monthly fees.
In rare cases, such as Zamzam’s, people who
bought the units were required to deposit
a specific lump sum upon purchase, which
generates interest that is used to cover the
running expenses of property management.
d) Street Vendors
Daily, after 3pm, a minimum of 200 street
vendors swarm the area, in the main street
cutting AAA, the sidewalk of the Central Axis
road and other alley ways. Parts of street
vendors are those moved from downtown
to “Turguman” area. They could not work
in Turguman and decided to move to AAA
93 | Understanding the development context
seeking more clients.
Street vendors occupy parking and walking
space and consequently increase the diffi-
culty of accessing enterprises in the malls
by their clients, especially patients seeking
medical clinics. Despite that the CA removed
the street vendors from all main streets
(Tahrir Street in front of Hossary Mosque,
the Central axis and El Nassr Central Axis),
they still manage to stay there until they get
notified of a removal campaign.
Around 70% of vendors are Egyptians, and
the remaining 30% are Syrians. Many of
the Egyptian street vendors were moved
from Talaat Harb Street in down town Cai-
ro. Many commute daily from surrounding
governorates: Fayoum, Beni suef, and Shar-
keyya. While most interviewed vendors stat-
ed that they don’t pay for the locations they
occupy, some admitted that they rent their
space to others for EGP 50-110 a day.
In addition, most of their products are com-
peting with those of shops, since they dis-
play copies of branded shoes, clothes, sun-
glasses and watches, almost the same as
those in mall shops at lower prices. Syrian
vendors focus mostly on homemade foods
and bakeries.
e) Parking Attendants and Thugs
The reason why parking attendants and
thugs are cited together is that no atten-
dant could earn a livelihood in car parking
unless he is authorized by one of the thugs
controlling AAA. Many of them belong to
the residents of a nearby orphanage. Thugs
instruct parking attendants to reserve loca-
tions for street vendors in return for a fee.
f) Employees
Employees come to AAA to work as shop
attendants and workers in food processing.
Taking five as the average size of employ-
ment in the 1500 shops of AAA brings us