As previously reported, Daegu is rolling out plans to overhaul Dongseongno and enhancing its stature as the center of the city. But the fallout is all the pissed off street vendors who need to pack up and peddle their wares elsewhere, while the city rolls in with its forklifts and excavators.

The Jung-gu Office has provided alternate locations for them to set up shop, but that obviously was not good enough for the hardcore vendors on that prime stretch of concrete, where even some of the smaller vendors are suspected to rake in excess of 5 million won a month and the busy food kiosks around Burger King can gross over 10-20 million in monthly sales, which is no wonder as to why they chose to protest to the bitter end, before having to be cleared out by police. The irony of all this is that the vast majority of street vendors are operating illegally to begin with and its not uncommon to see police tearing down illegal tents and kiosks in other parts of the city. The difference with downtown is that given the high revenues, the vendors here could afford ‘protection’ and enough heads to look the other way. But obviously in this case, one can only sell so much odeng and ddeokbokki to compete with the coffers of government.