The daily trauma on East Street

Nov 25, 2019 Letters

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Dear Editor,
Every Guyanese knows that the city streets are terribly overcrowded, can be recklessly impatient, and reveals Guyanese road users, drivers especially, at their barbaric worst.
Pick any part of town, any given street, with the municipal Stabroek Market being hands down the ultimate expression of Guyanese gruesomeness, and it is the same ugly story.
But there is one city block that competes spiritedly with the Stabroek Square for possibly the tightest, the most wretched, and the sickest stretch in Georgetown. That would be East Street, bordering the GPHC, between its Lamaha Street and New Market Street perimeters.
This short street brings everything into perspective: routine safety is imperiled, health stressed, and limbs menaced.
There is no sidewalk for those unable to afford taxis or the courtesy of the family vehicle.
Many of these walkers are in the way of drivers (mostly in a noisy hurry) and lack the energy or vigor to get quickly out of the way, which adds anxieties to their existing fragile physical conditions.
There is no place to go for these citizens who are sick, since just about every space on East Street to the hospital is occupied by parked and double-parked vehicles. They are going to the GPHC.
In other places where there is a major medical institution of the proportions of GPHC-it is the biggest by far in Guyana-there is some order, some freedom of movement, some reasonable and noticeable tranquility, all mostly strictly enforced.
In Guyana, right on the eastern side of the GPHC there are no such things: no standard, no discipline, no enforcement per se.
Nothing of the sort is in place or obeyed, and no one is around to make such happen.
This should not be a problem of the magnitude that prevails.
For there are some good citizens-hardworking men and women trying to make a decent living who-should and-could be influenced to see the light, observe some simple requirements, and which would make a difference.
Those would be the things not being worked out or taken advantage of or done now.
I submit this because the good folks clogging the streets and marooning residents, while severely constricting, if not endangering, pedestrians are mainly workers from nearby institutions, hijacking traffic flow on East Street from Lamaha to New Market.
Editor, workers include those at the huge GPHC facility, the Ministry of Social Protection, and the taxi operators, all of whom park-carve out space, really-wherever they can find a piece of one, even when there is nothing.
Whatever and wherever that fractional piece of parking real estate may be, it is declared satisfactory, by those who create something out of nothing.
It exposes the sick pedestrians visiting the Georgetown Hospital to tight and dangerous positions, which they have difficulty navigating.
These patients run the ward: weak and sick, limping and hobbling and on crutches, pregnant or carrying babies, diseased and sometimes not so far from dying. It can be a joyless existence for these strapped, poorer ones.
Things don’t have to be this way, this tense, as there is a choice: easy, available (I believe), and convenient and close.
Why is this option not exercised has so far eluded me? I say this because there is this wasted space right on Lamaha Street from around Thomas Street all the way to Albert Street that is free and clear and right there. It is largely empty, other than for the GRA stragglers, which are closer to Camp Street. I am dumbfounded why the length of almost four city blocks lie idle and vacant.
I heard that the GPL had some plans, which I think was the cover story to get rid of the squatters, now somewhere in Parfait Harmonie.
It has been unused for some 4-5 years now; and even if only temporarily, it would be a difference maker. Why not? Why not, when there is a connecting wooden bridge to take workers to and from the two bigger state institutions identified? That vacant area stands as a sacrilege in congested, besieged Georgetown. Why not, when it could free up some precious road space (walking space) on East Street? I suggest some serious consideration of making such a move mandatory of state employees, given what is involved, the pluses that are sure to follow.
Then there are the taxi drivers. They cluster and congregate diagonally, doubly, sometimes in triple formation, right around the East Street entrance/exit of the GPHC. They are not among the most considerate of road presences. I suggest arranging them along the lines implemented on New Market Street in the vicinity of the emergency entrance of the GPHC: reserved spots, no double parking, no stopping/blocking the hospital entrance/exit gateway. The benefits of more space, more order, and more convenience and safety should follow.
In addition, food vendors should be relocated to a few feet more off the road’s edge.
Too often, these vending places (already on the ribbon of the road) have served as the stopping point for uncivilized and ignorant drivers (the Guyana story on display).
There is the usual situation of: stop, place order, wait on the road path itself, and carry on a gyaff. The quick-to-gather lines behind are reduced to sounding horn (in a hospital zone) and cursing futilely.
I recommend that the seniors at the GPHC and the Ministry of Social Protection take the initiative and direct their workers to park on Lamaha, as identified earlier.
It is just a few yards away, less than a city block. If it is necessary, reach out and work out something with the GRA (or GPL). Also, taxis and vendors must be redirected, along the lines mentioned previously, by the GPF or whichever agency is responsible for such things.
This improves the quality of life for residents, the sick passersby, and the other foot soldiers on forced marches in the sun. I appeal to the state to give something back, only this little, to the suffering people.
I appreciate that everybody has a vehicle. They also have a duty to be responsible. Let’s restore this block to some level of sanity and civility, since there are options. Then let’s figure out how to do the same for other streets and sections of this savaged city.
GHK Lall

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