Disorder is now the operating system in Georgetown

Jan 22, 2026 Features / Columnists, Peeping Tom

(Kaieteur News) – I’ll begin with the hard truth, stated plainly and without ornament: illegal vending has destroyed Georgetown. Say it again, because repetition is the only way reality cuts through denial—illegal vending has destroyed Georgetown. And because it has destroyed Georgetown, it makes no sense pretending that the city can be rescued by cosmetic fixes, enforcement blitzes that last a week, or billion-dollar plans that ignore the obvious. The city is beyond restitution as it is currently conceived. Beyond restitution. Beyond repair. Beyond denial.

A city cannot survive chaos. I visited the Stabroek Market a few days ago. I went not as a tourist, not as a nostalgic observer, but as someone trying to see what the government claims it has “fixed.” And what I saw was not order, not improvement, not progress. I saw chaos. I saw confusion. I saw a mess. Despite what the government has done—and they will tell you they have done a lot—the place remains chaotic and unmanageable.

What used to be a small car park for short-drop cars plying the East Bank Public Road is gone. Erased. In its place are permanent shacks—permanent—operating as businesses, with no planning, no zoning, no sanitation logic. This was not an accident. This was allowed to happen. And once allowed, it became entrenched. When disorder becomes permanent, governance disappears.

How can any city survive under such conditions? That is not a rhetorical question; it is a practical one. The answer is simple: it cannot. Vendors are still out in large numbers outside the market, even as the inside of the market remains underused. Not much business is being done inside. Why would it be, when the streets are free, enforcement is weak, and illegality is rewarded with foot traffic? When the street becomes the shop, the shop dies.

A city that cannot be walked is a city that cannot breathe. Walk along Water Street by the Museum and you see another example of quiet collapse. The pavements are no longer pavements. They are no-overtaking zones for pedestrians, squeezed from both sides by vendors who have encroached until movement itself becomes a negotiation. This is not urban life; this is urban suffocation. This is not vibrancy; this is paralysis.

The situation is unmanageable. It cannot be managed into order because disorder is now the operating system. And so, it makes no sense—none at all—for the government to spend billions trying to impose sanitation, structure, and discipline on a city that continues to expand commercially without restraint. Yes, the government is fixing roads. Roads matter. But roads only deliver people faster into chaos. Infrastructure without control accelerates collapse.

Nothing meaningful can be achieved until certain lines are drawn and enforced. First, there must be a halt to new commercial activity in the city. Full stop. Second, illegal vendors must be removed from streets and pavements—not temporarily, not selectively, but permanently. Third, store owners who have been forced, by unfair competition, to spill their goods onto pavements must be told—firmly and fairly—to return to selling inside their stores. The pavement is not a warehouse. The pavement is not a shop. The pavement is not a right.

If the government truly wants to help Georgetown, it must also look inward. Move some Ministries outside the city. Decentralize government services. Reduce the daily flood of workers and citizens who have no choice but to enter the city to transact official business. Congestion is not just caused by vendors; it is fueled by policy choices. You cannot ease congestion while concentrating power.

The continued commercial expansion of Georgetown—especially through illegal vending—is not a sign of economic health. It is a warning sign of systemic failure. It will further destroy the city, street by street, pavement by pavement, until nothing remains but movement without purpose and commerce without value.

Zoning must be implemented now, not as a study, not as a promise, but as a firm and enforceable policy, and it must apply equally to every ward without exception, favoritism, or political bargaining. No more residential properties should be converted into businesses—none—because once homes disappear, neighborhoods collapse, families move out, and the city becomes nothing more than a congested trading post that shuts down at night.

A city without homes is not a city. Zoning is not anti-business; it is pro-survival, drawing clear lines between living, working, and trading so that communities can breathe again. If every house becomes a shop, every street becomes a market, and every resident becomes a stranger, then the city ceases to be a place of life and becomes only a place of transaction—and that is the surest path to permanent decline.

So let us stop pretending that the city can be saved. It cannot. Georgetown, as currently structured, is beyond restitution. The only honest conversation left is not how to save it, but how to stop destroying it. Stop the expansion. Remove the illegal vendors. Enforce the law. Return zoning. Decentralize the state.

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

Discover more from Kaieteur News

Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.

disorder, Georgetown, Peeping Tom, Stabroek Market

One thought on “Disorder is now the operating system in Georgetown”

Walchum January 22, 2026 at 1:05 pm

I refer to Peeping Tom’s letter of 22nd Jan 2026 on the disorder in the capital city Georgetown. This article is right on the button and the absolute truth of the current situation. I totally agree with his analysis. No half measures can fix this, it needs a radical approach and it is hoped government has such a plan and not squeamish to act (without fear or favour) and soon!
Visiting Guyanese

Reply ↓

Latest News