Georgetown must breathe again

Jan 07, 2026 Features / Columnists, Peeping Tom

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(Kaieteur News) – The Georgetown City Council must face a hard truth. The business community and the citizens of Georgetown are not going to sit back and allow illegal vending to destroy the city. Patience is running out. Frustration is growing. People who invest, pay taxes, and try to obey the law feel abandoned.

Georgetown is already a dirty and disordered city. Many streets stink. Drains are blocked. Pavements are broken and crowded. Traffic cannot move properly. Pedestrians cannot walk safely. One of the main reasons for this chaos is illegal roadside and pavement vending. It has spread everywhere. It now feels normal, but it is not normal and it is not legal.

The business community, or at least sections of it, has had enough. Their survival is at stake. Their investments are being strangled. Many shop owners pay rent, light bills, taxes, and staff salaries. They follow rules. Meanwhile, illegal vendors set up right outside their doors. They block entrances. They attract customers away. They generate a great deal of waste. This is not fair competition for businesses. It is economic punishment for obeying the law.

Illegal vending is often defended by saying the vendors are poor. That argument no longer holds. Many pavement vendors are clearly not destitute. Look at their stock. Look at the size and variety of goods. Look at the tents, the stalls, stands and the caravans. This is not survival vending. This is business without rules. In some cases, the middle class is posing as poor vendors.

We now have roadside boutiques. We now have roadside bars. We now have food caravans taking over public spaces. We now have roadside fast-food businesses. These are not small acts of desperation. We have roadside barber shops. We have phone repair shops on pavements. These are organised commercial operations using public property for private gain. No city can function like this.

One of the greatest shames is what has happened to the Square of the Revolution. That space is meant to honour the 1763 slave rebellion. It is a site of memory and dignity. Today it has been defiled. It has been taken over by food caravans and other forms of vending. This should offend every Guyanese. History is being disrespected in the name of disorder and weak enforcement.

City Hall must also remember that the courts have already taken a stand. Not so long ago, a judge made it clear that City Hall does not need to wait on an order of mandamus to remove illegal vendors. The judge said that once a business writes to complain about illegal vending, City Hall should act. The law is already on the side of order. What is missing is the will to enforce it. Too often, City Hall behaves as if it is powerless. That is not true. The council has laws. It has officers. It has authority. What it seems to lack is the will. Instead of enforcing the law, it tries to accommodate those who openly break it. That sends a terrible message. It tells people that rules do not matter.

The time has come to rid Georgetown, and other places too, of illegal vending. This does not mean cruelty. It means fairness. It means order. Legal vending spaces can be created. Markets can be organised. Presently, the markets are looking like ghost towns inside. Shoppers are not going into the markets as they use to. The Bourda Green, for example, is now desolate extend for those stands around and near the outer perimeter.

City Hall must set clear rules. But illegal vending on pavements, roadsides, and outside markets cannot continue. Georgetown needs space to breathe again. Pavements are for walking. Roads are for traffic. Public spaces are for all citizens, not for private businesses operating without permission. A city that cannot enforce simple rules cannot develop. Citizens are watching. Businesses are watching. They are not going to remain silent forever. In fact, businesses are taking action now. They are fighting back. The refuse to tolerate this situation any longer. If City Hall continues to fail, pressure will increase. Legal action will increase. Public anger will increase. The Georgetown City Council should see this moment clearly. It can either stand for order, fairness, and the law, or it can preside over further decay. The choice should not be hard. Georgetown deserves better.

(The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of this newspaper.)

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• breathe, Georgetown, Georgetown City Council, Peeping Tom

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