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| VIP Sports' Bulent Huseyin stands outside his recently reopened storefront in Tottenham. |
The final installment in our series of Tottenham businesses striving to recover from London's August riots.
VIP Sports
The owner of a Tottenham sporting goods shop looks at CCTV footage of the empty street outside. “If I never saw the seconds ticking I would think the camera is frozen,” says Bulent Huseyin, who runs VIP Sports.
The shop raised its damaged shutters and reopened for business this week, three months after a neighborhood protest erupted into rioting. Huseyin expects it will take six months for his customers, mostly young men from the impoverished area, to return in force. But just opening the doors is a start.
“There were no fireworks going off, but we’re up 80 pounds,” he said. “I’ve more or less done as much as I can physically do, and we’ll just have to wait and see.”
The shop raised its damaged shutters and reopened for business this week, three months after a neighborhood protest erupted into rioting. Huseyin expects it will take six months for his customers, mostly young men from the impoverished area, to return in force. But just opening the doors is a start.
“There were no fireworks going off, but we’re up 80 pounds,” he said. “I’ve more or less done as much as I can physically do, and we’ll just have to wait and see.”
Tottenham's Waiting Game
He’s still waiting to fully address an estimated £16,000 in damages and loss of stock. Huseyin, who says he would be in trouble if he didn’t also own rental properties, welcomed the recent news that Haringey Council suspended business rates for many impacted traders until March.
“It takes the pressure off,” he says, “but I think they should have resolved it a lot quicker.”
Generally Huseyin is critical of the Council's recovery efforts, and he says the aid that's been given so far is unlikely to address the area’s wider economic challenges.
“Tottenham is always suffering - the only thing that goes for Tottenham is Tottenham Hotspur football ground, and that doesn’t put money into anyone's pocket, except restaurants on match days,” he said.
Huseyin, who has run VIP sports for two years and held the lease for more than a decade, points to a lack of opportunities and cuts to social programs as the cause of borough’s struggles.
A Borough in Crisis
He remembers being woken up during a family vacation in Turkey with a call from a neighbor saying rioters had taken over Tottenham’s streets and his shop had been looted.
“It’s a shameful thing for me to say, but the first thing I thought is that they’re standing up for their rights,” Huseyin said. “They’re telling the people help us, we need help.”
Tottenham has one of the highest rates of people receiving job seekers allowances in London, and Huseyin says many of the young men that patronize his business live off £57.50 per week.
If nothing is done to increase job opportunities, he says, the riots will mark a new phase rather than an end of turmoil for traders like himself and the residents of Tottenham.
Radio 5 will be broadcasting more about the Tottenham Riots next week.
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