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Where are our Architects and Town Planners?

May 16, 2009 Letters

DEAR EDITOR,
I find little joy in penning letters to Editors, as control of printed contents and publication is never in the domain of the authors. On this occasion, however, the pain I feel about my city compels me to communicate to the citizenry through your letter column in the hope that some will respond and take positive action.
Those of us of some age will recall our admiration for the beautiful, air-cooled wooden buildings that was Georgetown. Today the buildings of those days are fast disappearing to be replaced with massive, ugly concrete and steel structures that put additional strain on our poor power supply.

Our well laid out city of all year round flowering plants and trees, which was once the envy of the West Indies and the world, is now replaced with the stench of unattended foam, plastic and other garbage. We know what we are now called.
Our open spaces that provided safe recreational places, lovely areas where we would stop and wonder, at the grandeur of a palm tree or a flowering rose, is now the repository of the unmentionable and the liming spot for addicts and vagrants. A once peaceful city is now unique in its noise level – loud music and blaring car horns highlight Police impotence.

We have forgotten that one of the greatest tourist attractions the world over is a pristine cemetery. Many of us may remember standing in Le Repentir and gazing at the majesty and beauty of the towering palms all in symmetrical perpendicular stance to the street below. A people can be judged by the way they care for the dead. Today, our cemeteries are naked jungles that often serve as the perfect spot for those earmarked to depart this world reluctantly.

Squatting is now regarded as a natural right. The slow pace of housing development cannot keep up with the demands of a young population, but this cannot be used to excuse the rise of squatting. This is symbolic of a decline in appreciation of nature and beauty.
Where today are our Architects and our Town Planners? Where are our visionary leaders who claim to want a better world?
Let us develop a new approach, bring out our skilled people like the Westmaases, Alis, and Rodrigueses, our builders, our decorators, our teachers, and work to reclaim our city of Georgetown.
Keith Scott, M.P.

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