This presentation gives context to an award winning urban revitalization project in Bangkok along the Ong Ang Canal. The Ong Ang Canal is home to one of the oldest street vending communities in Bangkok and up until 2016 was the location of the Saphan Lek Toy Market. With a focus on a period of street vending restrictions that began in 2014 and accelerated in 2016, it explores how street vending was transformed historically and shaped into a part of Thai national identity that is sold to a global audience. The forced closure of the Saphan Lek market and the celebration of the Ong Ang Canal revitalization project is a continuation of this tradition. Although small-scale urbanism is often celebrated as an alternative to large-scale urban interventions, this talk unpacks the universalizing nature of this canal project and its failure to protect and accommodate the vendors who made this canal famous.