THE SLOW DEMISE OF GEORGETOWN

Mar 06, 2010 Features / Columnists, Peeping Tom

Derelict vehicles which encumber the City Council’s parapets have been removed. These vehicles are lying in the Princes Street compound of the municipality.
If the owners do not come forward and claim these vehicles and pay the penalties involved, then the vehicles are likely to be disposed of. This is a positive development within the city.
It has been followed by an announcement by a leading official in the municipality that the Council intended to stop all illegal works on its reserves and parapets and also intended to take action against persons who are using the council’s parapets and reserves for businesses.
It is high time some action was taken to stop these illegal activities and the Council must be commended for the positive stand it has taken. But when will the Council try to reclaim those parapets on which persons are squatting and on which houses have been established?
Some of these houses are receiving water and electricity. Many of them have meters. How was this allowed? Did the City Council ever object to these squatters receiving water and electricity? Why did they not object so as to prevent persons from taking up permanent residence on the reserves and parapets? Or is this too complex a problem for the City Council.
Did the City Council ever stop to consider that it was shooting itself in the foot when it allowed squatting to take over large sections of its reserves and parapets? Did the Council not predict that one day realistic valuations would have been used as the basis for the assessments of rates and taxes, and therefore did it not think that should the squatting be allowed, it would lower the property values for the buildings nearby and therefore the revenue intake when the new valuation system kicks in will be less than anticipated?
The City Council keeps singing the same tune. It keeps complaining about the government not approving new sources of revenue. The City Council does not need new sources of revenue. It needs a more equitable system of sharing the tax burden and it needs to stop shooting itself in the feet and denying itself critical avenues of funding.
Take for example the markets. Business is slow. This is so because not many persons are going into the markets. Why go into the market when there is pavement vendor selling just outside of the market? So the people in the market are not making money and therefore the Council cannot impose additional rental and fees on market vendors? Those vending illegally on the outside are doing much better but are not adding to the revenue of the Council.
The Council needs to support its clients. It needs to stop all pavement and street vending. It needs to prohibit all vending that takes place outside of the walls of the market, including vending from trucks which sell produce and which deprive the retailers within the market of selling their meat, greens and vegetables. If an illegitimate source from which the Council is earning no income is depriving legitimate stallholders from earning, why would the Council not move against these illegal vendors? Is this too complex a problem for the Council to deal with?
Unless the Council acts and acts quickly and decisively, Georgetown is going to lose its capital status further than they think. Georgetown is a dying city. By the next ten years, the main business activities in Guyana will be shifted to Diamond which will have a larger population base than Georgetown and will thus become the new capital of Guyana.
This is all the more reason for the Council to act against illegal occupation of its parapets, pavements and reserves. Time is not on its side. If it does not act to remove these encumbrances and the illegal vending that is taking place in the city, then we can cut the timeline down by five years.
This means that within five years, property values in Georgetown will hit rock bottom and most of the businesses will remove to the more lucrative Diamond area which is to be designated as a secondary town.
History does not mean anything to the PPP. They are not interested in the symbols of heritage. They are moving to make things modern and therefore relegating Georgetown to the status of an old town will cause no real disturbance for the PPP.
In fact, the PPP does not even have to do anything. Given the rate at which businesses and social services are springing up in the Diamond area, it is only a matter of time before major demographic shifts downgrade Georgetown to an old, dying town.

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