Police cars were lined up Friday morning at Drake's Seat where normally 15 vendors selling T-shirts, tropical drinks and souvenirs would be found. As one vendor tried to set up his wares, he was gently reminded that his permit had been revoked and was asked to comply with the law.
Sen. Alicia Hansen joined Sen.-elect Celestino White, police and displaced vendors, making the scenic overlook on St. Thomas's North Side almost as congested as on a normal business day.
Battle lines were drawn months ago when, in frustration over government inaction, the owners of the land the overlook occupies, the heirs of the estate of Homer Wheaton, withdrew their easement agreement with the government and had their representatives tell the vendors to leave. The easement explicitly forbids commercial use of the area, according to previously published reports.
One vendor, Iris Martinez, asked, "If this is private property, why are we paying [the government] $900 a year to be here?" as she displayed a memorandum of agreement between herself and the Housing, Parks and Recreation Department.
One condition of the agreement reads: "The government will reserve the right to cancel the month-to-month permit without notice." And that is what happened this week when Housing Commissioner Ira Hobson served letters on the vendors Thursday informing them they were to be relocated to an area near Vendors Plaza in downtown Charlotte Amalie.
White, however, said the land isn't private and that he has documents that prove it was deeded to the government in 1947. "The land we're sitting on is government land," he said.
White said a 36-foot-wide strip of land running from the Louisenhoj Castle well past the Drake's Seat overlook was deeded to the government to build a roadway and that the overlook lies within that 36 feet.
"I'm not saying the government doesn't have the right to move the vendors," he said, but he claims it isn't up to the landowners anymore. And, he said, it is time for the governor to step in.
White also claimed that Licensing and Consumer Affairs Commissioner Andrew Rutnik, who earlier this week initiated the action to move the vendors, has a personal interest in getting them out of the area. White accused Rutnik of "working for people who want to buy the property" and said these people are the owners of Mountain Top. "They want to erect a restaurant right here," White said.
Vendors have lashed out at Rutnik, too. For days there have been protest signs up on the portable toilet at the overlook site, and on Friday vendors carried signs disparaging the commissioner.
Rutnik said on Friday that White's charges concerning him are "absolutely not true. There is no agenda on my part, and I have no knowledge of any restaurant, bar or, in fact, anyone who is interested in buying that land."
Calling White "a negative leader who gets involved in rumor and innuendo," Rutnik added, "If he has any proof [of his charges], let him come forward with it."
Rutnik said he has turned the matter over to his enforcement officers.
White and Rutnik appear to agree on one thing. Rutnik, too, said, "it is all up to Government House."
He said he expects at some point to find a suitable permanent new site for the displaced vendors, probably at Vendors Plaza.
On Friday, the Drakes' Seat vendors were not happy with having to move, complaining of having to buy umbrellas and displace taxi drivers who normally park where the vendors are now to be set up.
One vendor said, "It's in a flood zone."
