Livelihood Reports Al Amrikeya Area - Final Assessment | Page 173

3.2.1.4 Public Open Space Elements-Street
Furniture
The majority of ground floor shops, as well as
street vendors, occupy streets and sidewalks
as part of their public space extensions. Shop
owners are dissatisfied with the presence of
street vendors as they obstruct traffic and at-
tract the attention of customers away from
the shops inside the mall (especially as street
vendors offer products at lower prices). Both
street vendors and shop owners, however, suf-
fer from scrutiny and raids from the police for
the removal of their public space activities. As
street vendors are found to be a nuisance for all
of the authorities, shop owners and mall man-
agements, street vendors lamented that they
feel unsafe in the area and attacked on many
fronts. They explained that when the authori-
ties remove their products, they are confiscated
and cannot be retrieved. It was found through
interviews that the majority of street vendors
(88.9%) think that the main challenge to their
businesses is 6th of October CA.
As a result of the current dynamics and their
feeling of instability, street vendors feel unmo-
tivated to invest in their work or their space.
Shop owners, too, are displeased with the de-
struction of their public space extensions such
as flooring and signage. The police or CA de-
stroys these during their unplanned visits.
3.2.1.5 Public Open Space Elements-Lighting
Although AAA is in general well lit both dur-
ing day and night, there are some areas that
require lighting maintenance and upgrading.
Shop signage and facades provide the area with
lighting, but dirt roads and passages suffer, as
they are not lined with active shops. Lampposts
that exist on these streets are often broken or
left damaged. A more thorough maintenance
program is needed for dirt roads, as well as the
provision of lampposts where they are need-
ed. In support of this, electric power should
be made available in areas where street ven-
115 | THE AREA’S NEEDS ASSESSMENT
dor stalls are permitted in order to prevent the
theft of power from public lampposts. Similar-
ly, inside malls, lighting units in front of vacant
shops are not maintained and many light bulbs
need changing. This hinders the security of the
malls, especially on upper storeys, and renders
the mezzanine and first floors relatively unsafe.
This can be resolved through mall management
intervention to ensure safety throughout each
mall.
3.2.1.6 Environmental Aspects-Solid Waste
Management
Technical Aspects
Waste Collection / Transportation Facilities:
Poor performance by the company and lack of
proper service monitoring by the CA leave the
streets of the target area unclean (Figure 66).
This could also be attributed to some other fac-
tors:
• The inadequate number of waste storage
facilities and containers that can contain all
the generated waste during daytime. There
are many places around the target area
where there are no waste storage facilities
at all. Waste accumulates in these loca-
tions and is only casually collected.
• There are several streets that are still un-
paved, which makes them hard to clean,
and attracts littering.
The 6th of October CA offers poor street clean-
ing service and leaves some internal streets
between malls unpaved. These streets are
difficult to clean. In addition, all the fringes of
the 6th of October University area and almost
all the vacant areas are used as illegal waste
dumps and are not serviced by the assigned
private service company.