A MUCH BETTER OPTION

Jul 10, 2014 Features / Columnists, Peeping Tom

A community in Alberttown, one of the wards in the city, has come together to help clean the drains so as to prevent flooding and generally improve the environment.
One of the representatives of the group remarked that he was using resources and was not seeking any assistance from the government.
Just why the government’s name had to be invoked is beyond me. It is not the government that is responsible for ensuring that the drains are clean. It is the responsibility of the City Council and it is the failure of the City Council over a period of three decades that have led to the present deplorable state of the city.
If anything therefore, it is the City Council that should be providing the support to these community groups that are doing what the Council is supposed to be doing.
In another case, a former member of parliament is reported to have urged the government to do something for the city. But why should the government do more for the city? What is it about the city that makes it deserving of more assistance from the government?
A strong argument, in fact, can be made that the government is doing too much for the city. The government is paying its taxes which amounts to hundreds of millions of dollars. It is repairing roads which are municipal roads. The tab for this runs to billions of dollars over a period of years. The government is giving a healthy subvention to the Council. The government is doing a lot more. In fact, it now has a rescue package of close to a billion dollars earmarked for the city. What more should the government do?
The City Council has compounded the problems it inherited by its attitude towards illegal vending and squatting in the city. Georgetown is a mess which cannot be restored unless major issues such an illegal vending and squatting is addressed. But the Council lacks the political will to deal effectively with these problems. In fact, it can be argued that it is because of politics that the vending and squatting problems have emerged.
Politics will also ensure that Georgetown remains the mess that it now is. The government will spend its billion dollars to restore the city. It will demonstrate its good intentions towards the residents of the city. But the ruling party will not reap any electoral rewards for the considerable outlays that is making in the city. The PNCR will win Georgetown. It will win it narrowly because of the new system that will be used, but it will win it nonetheless and despite the pathetic record of that party in administering the affairs of the city.
As the populace waits on those elections that will restore the PNCR to the power at City Hall, new problems are developing; one of them is traffic control. It seems as if everyone these days has a car or wants to travel in a car.
People are not walking as much as they used to do. And it seems as if there are more taxis today than there were vehicles twenty years ago. This is making the traffic situation intolerable.
The government was to have implemented a plan to divide the city into four quadrants. Some streets were to have been converted into one-way streets.
That plan was to have been implemented since April. It is now July and there is no hint as to when the plan will be implemented. It is hoped that the authorities will not wait until Christmas to implement the plan.
Given all the problems that confront Georgetown: the problem of markets falling apart, the problem of drainage, the health threat, illegal vending, squatting, inadequate road lighting, a cemetery that is now a jungle, traffic congestion, lack of proper zoning and administrative squabbling in City Hall which cannot maintain its own building, it makes little sense for the government to try to restore Georgetown.
It is a mission impossible to bring this city to any order especially with the politics that is involved. It is best that a new city be constructed. Guyana should have a new capital. Other countries including Brazil changed their capital city.
Guyana should do the same. It would be more feasible to construct a brand new city outside of Georgetown than it would be to clean up the mess that Georgetown has become.

Latest News

A MUCH BETTER OPTION

Related

Similar Articles

The Glenn Lall Show|| April, 14th, 2025

Follow on Tik Tok @Glennlall

THE BLUNT OF THE DAY

Sports

Baksh half century inspires Herstelling’s 50-run victory

CARIFTA Games athletes depart for T&T

Shattas meet Botafago, Capital FC battle Milerock...

Dujon remembers Pydana – former Guyana and West...

St. Rose’s crowned Georgetown champions in...

Guyana’s Seon Bristol and Dexter Patterson...

Features/Columnists

Hope is what you rely on when you do not have a plan

Collaborative Government–Private Sector Action Imperative for a Resilient Trade Future

Politicians in houses of worship

Publisher’s Note

Weekend Cartoon

Bridge Watch

Demerara Harbour Bridge

> Berbice Bridge […]

A MUCH BETTER OPTION

Share this:

Related

Similar Articles

The Glenn Lall Show|| April, 14th, 2025

Follow on Tik Tok @Glennlall

THE BLUNT OF THE DAY

Sports

Features/Columnists

Publisher’s Note

Weekend Cartoon

Bridge Watch

Demerara Harbour Bridge

> Berbice Bridge […]