The Kitty Market today is a shoddy reflection of what it was in its heyday and many of its vendors only continue to operate there because they have few other options to make a living.
Gladston Monick, a fish vendor who has been at the market for 30 years said, “The market was beautiful, now it falling to pieces.” Monick, like many other vendors, is more than willing to see the market restored but he is tired of the empty promises over the years.
Monick believes that maintenance of the market was regular “when it was village council.” Ever since the responsibility of the market was passed to the Mayor and City Council, “they neglect the people in Kitty,” he added.
Another vendor pointed out that the market was built by “the older days people” and she would like to see the design preserved. Currently, the market is plagued with flooding when there is heavy rainfall and with a tattered roof and a gutter “is like Kaieteur falls” when it rains.
There are 155 stalls in and around the Kitty Market but just about 50 percent of those stalls are actually occupied. While outside the market fruit, clothing and haberdashery stalls can be seen, vendors said that business is not very good. Yet every day vendors come out to ply their trade because for most of them it is their only source of income. Clerk of Markets Schulder Griffith had told this newspaper that vendors who have their stalls closed are still paying rates and taxes because many of them have been occupying the stalls for close to 40 years and over. But Griffith admitted that rent collection at the market is negligible. “How can you ask for an increase when the market is in that state?”
There are plans to repair the walls, windows and the gates of the market, Griffith stated. However, he acknowledged that a complete rehabilitation is something all together different. “What the department has proposed over the years is to have the offending portions, the top, taken out and one common roof, so it won’t be a two-storey building.”
This year, the council has budgeted $1.5M for the market.
The Kitty Market’s annual revenue is $3M. Griffith noted that the difficulty in maintenance is because the moneys that the market generates do not go directly back into the market; rather, it goes into the council’s coffers and is used for other expenses as well. He believes this hampers development.
Sometime last month in a meeting between the Council and the vendors, it was agreed that a letter be sent to President Bharrat Jagdeo requesting assistance for the restoration of the market. To date there has been no reply to that letter.
