Dear Editor,
GEORGETOWN, our capital city, was once famously known as the ‘Garden City,’ because of its sparkling ponds and canals, tree-lined avenues and roadways, flowering plants, hedges, lawns, public gardens and cleanliness.
Today I think it would be more appropriate for its signature name to be ‘The City of Big Unrealistic Ideas and Plans that never materialise’, thanks to the dreamers who manage City Hall.
Whenever they mess up at the Council or something goes wrong in a major way, you always hear them come out and say they have a plan to fix it, which of course never happens. But the question is, why did they not implement these ‘smart’ ideas before to prevent the problem from occurring in the first place, rather than running around outing fires after the calamity occurs?
Animals were bludgeoned to death for years and only after the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals raised an alarm we heard of a plan by the town clerk to import one stun gun at a time rather than two as is required. Why did it have to take a decade to happen? And why don’t they purchase enough ammunition? Why can’t they fix the hydraulic pumps, so that the abattoir could be washed properly on a daily basis?
Only after a citizen is slayed by an uncontrolled, irresponsible and untrained city constable, that we hear of magnificent plans to have the national police train these ruthless city constables. All the years that vendors and citizens have complained about the maladroitness of the city constables, nothing is done. Indeed, they are always praised as being the oldest security force and their wide-ranging police powers are touted. Even when they sexually assault minors, it takes months and much external pressure for it to be addressed.
One of the latest most ridiculous grand schemes we have learnt coming out of City Hall recently, is a plan to convert public recreational space located in the upscale Bel Air Park area to accommodate grand luxury real estate for City Hall’s ‘Big Shots’. How preposterous. This is the same City Council that does not have money to complete renovations to the Kitty Market, that allowed the wharf area aback of Stabroek Market area to collapse, that glibly operates in the ruinous City Hall building and claim not to have money to fix it, that owes the NIS, GRA and GPL suddenly has found the financial resources to build luxury homes for their seniors.
Then there is the scintillating idea of metered parking in the city which is raising its ugly head again. What will it take for these very sapient municipal administrators to understand that citizens are not necessarily objecting to paid parking, but are protesting the way it was done. There was no consultation about the idea in the first place, there was no tender or bidding procedure undertaken; but worst of all, this Council was duped into believing that the previous Council had approved the contract.
Regards
Mark Roopan
