A PRIME stretch of pavement on the western corridor of Demico House that was overrun by the vending of a variety of commercial items, including X-rated DVDs, ‘three-card’ tricksters, and suspected drug-pushers is now clear. The drive by the new Georgetown Mayor and City Councillors (M&CC) is aimed at implementing the ‘Greater Georgetown Development Plan’ (GGDP) charted by Professor Akhtar Khan.
The vendors are among those requested by the M&CC to remove to a new location as the council moves to restore Georgetown as the Garden City of the Caribbean.
Deputy Mayor Sherod Duncan told the Guyana Chronicle on Sunday that the new council is working on moving Georgetown forward, and “tough decisions have to be made.”
“If Georgetown is to be competitive as a modern, international city, changes have to be made, striking the right balance between the rights of our vendors, the expectations of the residents of Georgetown and the national interest,” he said.
While some vendors have become emotional, complaining about the move, one vendor told the Guyana Chronicle that she is pleased with the decision of the council to relocate them temporarily in order to clear the area.
The vendors said the council promised to relocate them for three months to the compound opposite the Linden bus park, which once housed Royal Castle.
The woman, Alexis Hope, said, “Everybody had to remove… they ain’t had no stall breaking down. Everybody had to remove their stalls for them to do the cleaning. Everybody cooperate, we all join as a team and we move and clean the area.”
The vendor explained that they were informed of the move during a meeting with the council two Thursdays ago, and vendors even cooperated with the council in its clean-up campaign from the head of Regent Street to Stabroek Market.
“Here so need the space, so they locate the hat vendors and these to a location. Majority of the people wha does sell here, have a stand already. Deh giving we a spot. I am happy about the whole situation because, at least I don’t have to run.”
She pointed out too that though they are required to move, the new council operates “far different.”
REASONABLE
“We get a better arrangement, a better system. We is single parents. They is not fighting we. They putting we from a location, to another location. Nah fuh seh we ain’t get place fuh sell, we geh place fuh sell!” the woman said.
The vendors said though they were told that selling begins Tuesday at the new location, Town Clerk Royston King said vending will not be allowed on Tuesday anymore.
Fruit vendor Monifa McPherson was sad. She said: “They want to remove us from there. They want to put us where the old Royal Castle bun down, behind Parliament. The place ain’t clean. Deh gone and throw sand down there to seh we gon sell, we cyan sell on sand.”
She said though she is not protesting being moved, the council could have operated in a more organised manner.
“At least they gah build a place, find stands and then place we. People ain’t gon leave the market to go till down there to buy from we — pass the wholesale place, pass the market, pass the bus park. You nah find people going there to buy from us. Business gon stink!”
Mobile phone top-up vendor Ashanti Bishop said the Town Clerk has accused vendors of encouraging school-children to loiter in the area and harbouring criminals.
“When you telling the schoolchildren go home they asking yuh ‘You is we motha?’”
Meanwhile, fruit vendor Vanessa Samuels said vendors cannot do anything about thieves.
“Now if a man pass and snatch this lady chain, wha we could do about tha. How we gon harbour them?”
THIEF MAN ZONE
She said the relocation spot is “the thief man zone” and being located just behind Parliament buildings, “When parliament keeping, yuh can’t sell.”
“When thief man snatch anything in deh, they could just run through Leopold Street. We get children fuh mind. Nuff ah we women here is single parents. How me gon send them to school. When you don’t send them to school the welfare coming on yuh back. Yuh trying a honest living,” the woman tearfully related.
Meanwhile, when Duncan was contacted by this publication, he said he is unaware of illicit drugs and pornographic materials being sold at the location.
“I think what everyone can agree on is that there is some amount of criminal activity which is fostered in the area in its present condition. Many residents of Georgetown know not to wear your jewellery in that area or use your expensive cell phone in the area as well,” Duncan told the Guyana Chronicle.
He said the present reorganisation of the Stabroek Market square is the single largest undertaking in that vicinity since the market was constructed in 1881, with the rehabilitation of the square being just part of the plan to restore the market and stelling located behind it, modernising the area while preserving its colonial heritage.