By DANNY O. SAGUN

PEDESTRIANS can now hardly walk thru the sidewalks in the downtown area. Ambulant vendors and store owners alike have occupied almost all available spaces forcing pedestrians to use the roadsides. In fact they are forced to walk almost in the middle of the road since the sides are occupied by vehicles which are not parked properly mainly because of the presence of vendors.

We cannot help but again ask City Hall what happened to law enforcement. We are returning to the chaotic road conditions of old –yes, during those times when you had to spend half an hour to an hour negotiating the way from traffic post No. 1 to city hall.

This administration pales in comparison to its predecessor as far as maintaining traffic order is concerned. Ditto with the campaign against ambulant vending.

We doubted that boast of certain sectors when comebacking Mayor Al Fernandez’s victory was already imminent that PUV drivers would again become “king” of the roads, relegating the traffic enforcers as mere spectators of their foolishness. The feeling then was that Mayor Al’s old style of governance would not change. Somehow we thought the new administration would do all it can to maintain or at least, try to innovate on its predecessor’s good points.

Now, that feeling of retrogress seems true after all. Bus terminals in prohibited zones have returned, ambulant vendors are all over every conceivable place, “No Parking” signs are blatantly ignored, etc.

We had a hearty laugh reading a story in this paper some issues back about the city’s successful campaign in the clearing of sidewalks of obstructions.

The PNA story quoted city Engineer Virgie Rosario. We wonder if the good engineer personally checked those areas, even the downtown area alone. If she did, she must have been wearing, dark, very dark,sunglasses.