Dear Editor,
No town-planning and no zoning are messing up Georgetown’s beautiful layout. We have an onion and potato wholesaler loading trucks in Middle Street, a bowling alley in Industrial Site, world-famous Honda and Toyota dealerships in Charlotte Street behind much chainlink fencing, 5-star hotels in the canefields , an up-market ‘German’s’ in the Tiger Bay area, with giant storage bonds and off-loading containers in residential areas.
Everything seems to be in the wrong place! Has the Town & Country Planning Department in the Ministry of Housing been scrapped? If the likes of Aubrey Barker and Neville Gomes were alive none of this would ever happen – the government must hire a town planner pronto to save Georgetown. Drive down Main Street and all you see are burnt out and abandoned lots. These scenic and nicely spaced out areas should contain prime real estate like hotels and guest houses; imagine what the Cacique and Buddy’s hotels could do for Main Street and vice-versa? This gloomy scene can be transformed by brightly-lit restaurants like a Steak House above Arapaima, bars and pubs, coffee shops, travel agencies, bookshops, hairdressing salons and barber-shops, boutiques and jewellery stores. Rebuilding Sacred Heart church would also do wonders for Main Street’s ambience too.
Our city square is fine with Fogarty’s, Guyana Stores, Muneshwers, the banks, the library, the museum, the GPO and the Bank of Guyana well-positioned and with ample parking. Things would look better if the auto dealer showrooms were downtown too, along with the National Archive building in place of the Emporium, which belongs on Water Street, along with the onion and potato wholesale dealer from Middle Street, where there is also lots of space. An access road cutting across Water Street between old Bookers Garage and the W&R Ice House, leading to a special dock for the cruise ships would be a good idea too.
Regent Street is the retail centre for small goods and, thankfully, we are seeing modern concrete buildings replacing the old wooden fire-hazards there. Middle Street, with its elegant period wooden buildings and open spaces of the Promenade Gardens and Independence Ground, could be made even better with a tram down the middle of it just for style.
Remember, for George-town to become any kind of tourist attraction you first have to create the environment tourists will feel comfortable in, maintain its uniqueness, then collect the garbage and get the madmen and vagrants off the street!
Yours faithfully,
Avery Gomes
