Latest update April 18th, 2025 8:12 AM
With restoration… Georgetown’s true beauty emerges
While most young citizens have heard stories of Georgetown in its glory days, few have beheld the true uniqueness of the place once touted as the ‘Garden City.’
For decades, the city‘s development was held hostage by a culture of littering and an administration too financially weak to manage its affairs. But like a woman whose beauty was hidden by grime and rags, the Georgetown that older folk once boasted of slowly emerging, thanks to a massive restoration exercise, that began almost immediately after the new administration took office.
Almost gone are the garbage heaps which once lay at almost every juncture of the city. The sight of clogged drains, trenches and alleyways overgrown with bush are also a thing of the past.
A newly refurbished City engineer building at City Hall, Avenue of the Republic
Noteworthy upgrade in the vicinity of the Georgetown Magistrates’ Court
Take a stroll around the city on any random day and the changes are evident and the citizens are taking notice.
Sherry Ferguson, a vendor from Kitty, Georgetown is one such person. She expressed optimism that the restoration of the city is ‘an upward climb’ for a nation which has seen many setbacks since gaining independence.
Ferguson made reference to the Kitty Market, once an eyesore and a hazard, which is currently under construction as part of the restoration project. It is a structure that Ferguson holds dear, since the area housed her business for years.
Ferguson noted her delight that after so many years the significantly delapidated Kitty Market structure is finally being restored. She looks forward to her business getting better with a safer, cleaner place to ply her trade.
“People used to be scared to come to the (Kitty) market to buy because the place was in such a terrible condition, but now we can look forward to better environment for work and shopping.”
The Independence Arch on Brickdam Georgetown
“I am told the rift between the previous government and the Council prevented the restoration project from taking off, but what any government must always remember at the end of the day is the people that suffer.”
Another citizen, Errol Thom, commented on the restoration of the National Independence Monument (popularly called ‘The Independence Arch’, and plans for the development of the D’urban Park.
“As a Guyanese born in the 1980s, I never witnessed the true beauty of the city, as I see is becoming evident.”
Thom said that he had never given the Independence Arch a second glance, until its recent restoration.
As a young Guyanese, he feels proud to have witnessed this change in the city, and he hopes that the development of the D’urban Park area will further beautify the city.
Another young vendor lauded the restoration and said she, too, is now seeing Georgetown’s true beauty. She now feels more comfortable in taking her children around Georgetown.
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