The Congested Urban Life (CUL): Clustered Streets... Street Vending

In urban cities it is very common to find streets being cluttered and crammed with street vendors, pedestrians and parked cars. Street vending has been part of ancient culture and is still part of our culture and society. Vendors sell just about anything and everything you can think about on the streets, pavements and sidewalks: fruits and vegetables, clothes, jewelry, furniture, food, drinks,CD's, DVD's, flowers/plants, appliance, accessories etc. Many of these diversified vendors, vend illegally as they do not have vending licenses, but for many it is the only means by which they can make a living and support themselves and their family.
These street vendors cause many problems which are related to urban congestion:

Pollution - garbage and waste dumped along the roadside and drains
Encroachment onto pavements which can be a nuisance to pedestrians and hinder them from walking
Reduce the size of the road lane - vendors on either side of the streets occupy so much space that only one car at a time can use the these 2 lane streets
Cause traffic congestion
Take sales away from other businesses
Aesthetically unpleasing

Parallel to these vendors are business, stores, offices, shops etc an therefore these pavements are always busy with pedestrians and customers. Legal business owners usually are unhappy with the problem of street vendors as they take business away from them "steal customers" and arguments can arise between business men and vendors, sometimes even between vendors for space and the threat of competition. Streets are lined with parked cars must of which is illegal parking from vendors selling from their cars or people parking to go purchase goods. This type of urban road congestion often leads to traffic on these streets. This is known as the informal economy and is common to the Caribbean and around the world as these vendor as not able to afford buildings. Much of these problems are attributed to a lack of law enforcement as some of these are illegal activities.
As urban areas grow in developing countries there is a increase in urban vending and further congestion of urban streets. According the the National Street Vendors Association in India they have identified two major causes of street vending in developing countries:

Lack of employment and poverty in rural areas which has forced many into cities seeking better employment , but as they are not skilled to obtain formal jobs, they often join this type of informal economy.
Some of these vendors may have been employed into the formal sector but lost their jobs due to closure, down-sizing or mergers and therefore vending was the only option to make an honest living.