The Housing Authority should bring an end to this madness

Jan 26, 2017 Features / Columnists, Peeping Tom

I had a stroll recently through parts of the city which, in days gone by, were considered as residential areas. I was horrified by the changes that are taking place within the areas of Queenstown and Alberttown.
It seems that those areas are no longer classified as residential areas. Businesses are propping up at almost every two house lots in Alberttown. Queenstown is being disfigured also by ugly construction
The designation of an area as a residential area does not mean that there were no shops or businesses. A residential area always has to be zoned in a way that would allow for a small number of shops and businesses to cater for the needs of residents.
What it does not mean is that it is okay for persons to be permitted to open a business every two lots, as seems to be the case in Alberttown.
Queenstown is also being overtaken by businesses. A few months ago, a Senior Counsel wrote a letter to the media indicating that the laws of Guyana do not allow for businesses to be erected in that area, within certain boundaries. Yet he counted, I believe, fifty-five establishments which were operating there.
Georgetown was intended to be a small city. A small city has markets, it has commercial districts and it has residential areas. Having residential areas, allows for persons to live near to where work can be found. This is why areas in the city are usually designated as residential areas. You must have places where people can live.
In colonial Guyana, the most ordinary of citizens could, with hard work and savings, hope to one day live in either Alberttown or Queenstown. You might not always be able to afford a front house, but you will be able to afford a back house. Working class families, particularly middle class professionals, were able to acquire properties in those areas.
That dream is now an impossible dream. The real estate value of properties in those areas has skyrocketed. A working class person can no longer afford a property in those areas. In fact, the way things are going, the business community is going to eventually gobble up most of the residential areas in central Georgetown.
This is already happening. Huge structures are being erected, dwarfing small cottages and other residential homes. It is not a pleasant sight. The aesthetics of Queenstown and Alberttown have been destroyed. Businesses are being erected where popular families once lived. The character of the city is changing.
Property relations are also changing. The business community is gobbling up real estate. This will exacerbate inequality in our country. It is rumoured that one businessman owns as many as one hundred properties in Georgetown alone. When you see working class people lining up for house lots in a country in which houses in parts of the country are unoccupied, you must understand that the housing stock is being taken over and converted to businesses in the traditional residential areas of the city.
The Central Housing and Planning Authority should bring an end to this madness. It should preserve the old residential areas of the City by limiting new construction for business purposes in these areas. It should allow working people, particularly the middle class, to once again dream of owning a home without having to go to the suburbs and beyond.

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