200th anniversary of Capital City… Massive clean-up exercise, stakeholders’ meeting planned - M&CC

200th anniversary of Capital City… Massive clean-up exercise, stakeholders’ meeting planned – M&CC

May 06, 2012 News

In observation of the 200th anniversary since the renaming of the Capital City, Georgetown, the Mayor and City Council (M&CC) has arranged a meeting of critical stakeholders to discuss plans pertaining to developing the city. This has been scheduled for Wednesday, May 9, at the Pegasus Hotel, starting at 10:00hrs.
The city began as a small town in the 18th century, when it was called the city of Stabroek. It was renamed Georgetown on April 29, 1812, in honour of England’s King George III.
According to the City Council in a statement, the meeting will be focused on appointing a broad-based committee of citizens to look at different activities and projects to mark the anniversary and to revitalize local communities.
Other plans for the meeting include; instructing the City Engineer to complete final estimates for the restoration of City Hall; the appointment of a Steering committee to pursue the restoration of City Hall; asking the Town Clerk to initiate the street-naming programme and to invite those with suggestions to share them with the council, at City Hall; in addition to requesting the Solid Waste Management Director to finalise plans for a massive clean- up exercise in all sections of the city.
The M&CC noted that “for decades individuals have remarked that an increasing number of citizens appear to have lost that sense of responsibility to their local communities and the city. This is manifested in their negative attitude towards the environment, lack of neighbourliness, and the default on the payment of property rates. Unless this deterioration is arrested the law- abiding and responsible citizens would be too few to protect and secure the integrity of the city”.
“Therefore, we call upon all citizens to spare a thought for the capital and join us in this effort to restore and develop it, as we celebrate its 200 years of existence.”
It was explained that many historians and scholars some time ago took the founding date as being when the British came in 1781, although they were not here long enough on that occasion to achieve developing a town. But they chose the site and built a wooden fort whose precise location is unknown. The 19th century historian James Rodway thought it might have been in Company Path. They also built a government office on the site where the Dutch had constructed a Brandwagt, in 1748, somewhere in the region of what is now St Andrew’s Kirk.
In 1782, the British were succeeded by the French, who developed infrastructure and buildings compatible with a town. However, they were removed by the Dutch in 1784.
Historical writings seem to suggest that the Dutch had not planned on establishing a town where Georgetown now stands; they had been examining areas on the East Bank in that part that is now called Coverden. Nevertheless, they proceeded with what they had inherited from the French. They called their new town, Stabroek, after Nicolaas Geelvink, President of the Dutch West India Company and Lord of Castricum, Backum and Stabroek.
Ongoing rivalry saw the British take over in 1812. In that year, an ordinance was passed to the effect that “the town formerly called Stabroek with districts extending from La Penitence to the bridges in Kingston and entering upon the road to the military camps, shall be called Georgetown”. Rodway put the date at May 5. The ordinance permitted the different districts of Georgetown to be known by their own names.
“It is true that the present physical state of this city is not one we can be proud of. Its decline is facilitated by the shallowness of its treasury, the indiscipline of some citizens, who indulge in wanton littering and the neglect of property-owners to honour their civic responsibility to pay their taxes. The situation is exacerbated by new and unprecedented environmental challenges fuelled by new technological advances and a throwaway society….Notwithstanding, this bicentennial provides us, Guyanese, with an opportunity to reflect upon the present state of our capital and our vision of its future,” the council statement concluded.

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200th anniversary of Capital City… Massive clean-up exercise, stakeholders’ meeting planned – M&CC

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