Urban Informal Economy
Increasing the squatting of public spaces
Roosveth Yate, 2018
Bogotá has been one of the most affected places with
the increase of hawkers on the streets of the city. The
urban informal economy or the informal sector as
defined by governments, academics, banks, etc. It's
the part of an economy that is not taxed, monitored by
any form of government or included in any gross
national product (GDP), unlike the formal economy [1].
This practice has become one of the most common
ways to get money, according to DANE statistics,
40% of workers in Bogotá are informal and there are
two factors that encourage the presence of vendors in
public spaces: on one hand, due to the difficulties of
the population to get a stable job, on the other hand,
they prefer to have an informal job instead of a formal
one. Nevertheless, as far as I'm concerned local
governments should take more restrictive and punitive
measures to avoid the use of public spaces such as
sidewalks, traffic lights and street crossings by the
urban informal economy, as it hinders the pedestrian
mobility and encourages unequal competition with
legal business in the city.
For the pedestrians of the city it's uncomfortable to
develop activities such as walking, taking the bus,
taking a taxi, ride by the cycle path, or waiting on the
sidewalk under the traffic lights the light change to
cross the street since there are vendors blocking the
pedestrian crossing every day. This situation is lived
daily in Bogota, specifically in downtown and in some
southern and northern neighborhoods, for instance, in
Bosa there is not where to walk, pedestrians have to
walk practically on the street due to the fact that on
the sidewalks there is no space, everything is occupied
by smalls cars and stands of vendors. Not only are
those practices awkward for pedestrians but for the
vehicular and bus flow.
For formal business owners in the city, it's
unacceptable that street vendors who belong to the
urban informal economy must not pay rent, taxes or
utility bills, while they must do it. In other words,
some people pay while others don’t. Case in point, in
Bosa, the lease of a commercial establishment costs
between $550,000 and $1'000,000, if that value is
added to the public services plus the taxes they must
pay to keep their in-force business, it turns out to be
more profitable to work informally because simply
there aren't those type of collections. In terms of gross
profit according to "Revista Dinero", a hawker of
sweets can generate daily sales between $ 100,000 and
$ 200,000 per day. This all depends on location, the
weather, and whether the sector is 'open' or ‘closed’
on weekends. This amounts to at least $ 2 million per
month, which on several occasions exceeds those of a
formal commercial establishment [2].
Fig. 1: Squatting of public space in 20 de Julio, Bogotá. [3]
Government policies have not been effective enough
to minimize or definitively end this type of economy,
according to the Institute for Social Economy (IPES),
during 2016 were done 104 operations to recover
public spaces in different Bogotá points, prioritizing
those who had more problems of invasion of public
space and where pedestrians had lost space to travel.
Among them are 72nd Street, 19th Street, Plaza de
Bolivar and surroundings, Simón Bolívar Park,
Ricaurte, 10th Avenue, 15th Avenue with 85th Street,
Bosa La Libertad, Alameda, Avenida Primero de
Mayo, Santa Librada, Portal 80, La Estanzuela, La
Pepita, El Voto Nacional y El Portal Norte [4]. Still,
they have not been sufficiently effective since people
return to this type of trade after being relocated to
places where they don't affect the pedestrian public
space.

REFERENCIAS
[1] Shepard W. (2011). Vagabond Journey. Recovered
from: https://www.vagabondjourney.com/life-
working-in-the-informal-economy-of-colombia/
[1] Edition Prensa. (2017). Revista Dinero. Recovered
from: https://www.dinero.com/pais/articulo/ventas-
ambulantes-demasiado-buenas-para-dejarlas/223696
[3] Gómez, A. (2015). CÍVICO. Recovered from:
https://www.civico.com/bogota/noticias/donde-denunciar-
la-invasion-del-espacio-publico

[4] Redaction Bogotá. (2017). El Espectador. Recovered

from: https://www.elespectador.com/noticias/bogota/mas-
de-3000-vendedores-informales-bogota-se-acogieron-p-
articulo-673142

BIBLIOGRAPHY
Peterson K. (2013). Lehigh University Lehigh Preserve:
The Informal Sector: Plague of the Colombian Economy.
https://preserve.lehigh.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?referer=http
s://www.google.com.co/&httpsredir=1&article=1009&cont
ext=perspectives-v31

Instituto Para La Economía Social. IPES (2008).

INFORME SOBRE EL PLAN DE DESARROLLO: Plan
de Acción y Avance de Proyectos.
http://www.ipes.gov.co/images/informes/INFORME_GEST
ION_IPES_2007.pdf

DANE. (2017). Medición De Empleo Informal Y Seguridad

Social: Trimestre Móvil Marzo - Mayo De 2017.
https://www.dane.gov.co/files/investigaciones/boletines/ech
/ech_informalidad/bol_ech_informalidad_mar17_may17.pd
f

Caldas Guarnizo S. (2010). Pontificia Universidad

Javeriana: Nivel Disposición De Los Vendedores
Ambulantes Para La Formalización De Sus Negocios En La
Ciudad De Bogotá
D.C.https://repository.javeriana.edu.co:8443/bitstream/hand
le/10554/9247/tesis336.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y