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TIGER BAY SHOULD BE TURNED INTO A BUINESS DISTRICT
One of the areas that the government has not addressed is ghetto communities. A lot of attention was paid in the past to regularizing squatter settlements. But not much attention has been paid to existing communities that have over time been turned into ghettos.
These communities have become infested with criminal activity. Drugs and other forms of criminal activity are part of the sub culture of such communities which have attracted a negative stigma.
These communities are invariably overcrowded. Many people live without basic social services. Water and electricity are not paid for. Living conditions are horrible. These communities are sometimes described as ghettos, not because of the people who live in it but because of the stigma that is attached to these places.
Businesses in these areas cater mainly for residents because persons do not wish to venture into these communities which end up being neglected. A solution has to be found to deal with the mushrooming of slums within cities.
A solution is necessary because you cannot have tourism in an area where there is a slum. Tourists are going to be mugged and this will destroy the tourist industry.
In some countries there has been an attempt to reclaim slum areas by turning them into business districts. It is called slum upgrading and where the upgrade is substantial it is called urban revolution.
It is different from regularizing. It involves a complete makeover of these areas. In some countries, the rich are moving in to buy up property in slum areas. They buy the property, hold it and then eventually begin to develop an entire area into businesses.
Slums are bad for any city. They are bad for the image of any area. They are often overrun by criminal gangs. They are hotbeds for illegal activities.
The Central Housing and Planning Authority should designate Tiger Bay and Albouystown as commercial zones. In this way, they will be able to save these two areas from becoming ghettos, if they are not already so unofficially classified.
The idea may seem at first outrageous. You may ask why would anyone go into low-income communities and establish businesses given the fears about crime in the communities.
There is good reason why businesses will want to buy up property in such communities for future business use. For one, the property can be had very cheaply. Property values in ghetto communities are extremely low and many property owners, once they get a decent price would willingly part with their properties.
It makes good business sense to buy cheap and then have the value of the property appreciated by converting a ghetto into a commercial zone.
It will do no harm for the central planning authorities to assist this process by designating areas considered as ghettos as commercial districts. The real estate value would immediately rise. Owners will sell and businesses will buy. The homeowners will sell and move on to better communities. Many of them would like to love to get out of the ghetto.
There is a lot of brotherhood and sisterhood in the ghettos. The people are genuine and helpful to one another. If you live in a ghetto and have a problem, people will help you and not expect a favour in return. They will help you in ways that rich folks would never do.
But life in the ghetto is still harsh and brutal. Parents do not want their children to grow up in the ghetto. They want a way out and if by selling their properties for sufficient to give them a better life elsewhere, they will do so.
One of the things about slums in Guyana is that a lot of persons live in them illegally. Squatting on private property is widespread in slums. Most of the squatters in Tiger Bay are living on lands owned by private individuals. These individuals do not know whether they will ever regain their properties. They do not know where to start.
They cannot even go and inspect what they own because the properties are overrun by squatters.
One way to regularize slums is to give those who own properties in slums, an incentive to sell. But they can only sell if those buying have an incentive to buy.
The incentives for both buyers and sellers are to turn these areas into business districts. Property values will rise and the slums will disappear faster than you think.
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In total agreement.