Colombo: the Pettah as a managed market street, cleaned, lit and sold to visitors as the best bazaar in Asia

A first step

Pick one street in the Pettah and walk it with a notebook, listing the traders whose goods a visitor would buy. Ask 5 of them whether they would pay a small monthly fee toward lighting, cleaning and a printed street map. Then offer a 2-hour guided bazaar walk to guests at 3 Colombo hotels at a set price. Paying walkers and willing traders together are the proof.

Who pays first

A visitor with a night or two in Colombo who wants the real market, with a guide who knows which stall sells what.

What leaves today

Visitors pass through Colombo on the way to somewhere else, and the Pettah's trade reaches them, if at all, through shops elsewhere at a markup.

The idea and the mechanism are from the book. The first step was written for this site as a suggestion; if you know a better one, say so.

The test

Does it keep value that now leaves the island, or build the proof that lets somebody else do so?

The only test any idea on this site has to pass. The four rules that go with it are here.

In the book

• Ch. SeventeenOne Building
  One building, and what a city could be known for

More from cluster 26

• 476Colombo: a night market on the Galle Face green run to a standard, every weekend
• 478Kandy: the lake promenade with cafés and evening performances, not only the temple
• 479Galle: a residents' company that owns the Fort's tourist lets and keeps the residents in
• 480Jaffna: a culinary capital, the crab and the palmyrah sold as a cuisine
• 481Trincomalee: the harbour as a sailing and diving centre for the Bay of Bengal
• 482Negombo: the fish market and the canals as Sri Lanka's Venice, done before the residents leave

All 10 ideas in this cluster