By Francis Quamina Farrier

THE complete rehabilitation of the two northern blocks of Bourda Street, in Georgetown, was completed two months ago – February 2018 – and it has been a win-win project for all the stakeholders. But it was not easy and swift in happening. For many citizens, it was a saga of trust and distrust; of whether the weather would work with the workers when they wanted to “get on with it”.

This is my second feature article dealing with the two northern blocks of Bourda Street in Georgetown; the first article which had the Headline “Will City Hall and the Vendors ever Cooperate for Guyana?”, was published in the Pepperpot of November 12, 2016.

The deterioration of the two northern blocks of the much-traversed Bourda Street, located at the western side of the Bourda Market, began over two decades ago, and without any attempt at maintenance, it went from being bad to being worse. Small potholes got larger and deeper. The street looked uglier and uglier. It reached the stage of becoming dangerous for the throngs of pedestrians who use it on a daily basis. There were many instances when pedestrians, especially the elderly, tripped and fell. In some instances the elderly sustained such serious injuries, that they had to be rushed to the hospital for immediate medical attention.

Many complaints were made to City Hall to effect repairs to this street which is, to some degree, a pedestrian street; for while a few vehicles crawl through the narrow corridor allowed by the many shoppers, this street is almost totally used by pedestrians who are also shoppers for the greens, fruits, fish, chicken and haberdashery being sold by vendors occupying shacks on both sides of the street.

With the massive clean-up of the City of Georgetown during the latter months of 2015, an impressive programme of rehabilitation of streets in the city was put in place by the Ministry of Public Infrastructure, and citizens took notice. Many streets in need of repairs for years were resurfaced for the first time in over two decades, and citizens began to enjoy a better standard of commuting.

Then the time came when City Hall turned its attention to Bourda Street with the plan to effect repairs “as soon as possible.” However, there were hurdles to surmount; the cooperation of the vendors being a principal one. Many of the vendors expressed mistrust. In many surveys which I took of the vendors over a two-year period, many of the vendors expressed concern that they will not get back their ‘spots’ should they move. Later, there was the weather which proved to be equally challenging.

AT LOGGERHEADS

The work was in the capable hands of the Ministry of Public Infrastructure, headed by Minister David Patterson. That Ministry was ready to do the work from day one. However, City Hall and the vendors were finding it very difficult to make it possible for the works to commence, since a mutually agreeable temporary relocation of the vendors was proving a great challenge. After identifying an alternative location, some of the vendors were in disagreement. That scenario played out repeatedly, and the street remained in a deplorable state.

From 2016, I kept surveying the mood and willingness of the vendors to move to facilitate the work. I also spoke with Mayor Patricia Chase-Green on a few occasions about the condition of Bourda Street. I even kept updates of the Ministry of Public Infrastructure, even as I continued to give publicity to other completed rehabilitation works of streets in other areas of Georgetown in my journalistic outlets.

On one occasion, I posed the question to Minister David Patterson, who along with Vice President and Minister of Indigenous Peoples’ Affairs, Sydney Allicock and Minister of Finance, Winston Jordan, were at a ‘meet-and-greet’ gathering at the Guyana Embassy in Washington, DC. In posing my question to the minister, I mentioned that about 70 per cent of the vendors were willing to move to a temporary location to allow the road repair work to be done. The minister’s response was “It’s that 30 per cent who will not cooperate that can cause the problem.” However, frustration, although knocking at the doors of the Ministry of Public Infrastructure and City Hall, did not prevail.

SOME PROGRESS
Indeed, it did take some doing on the part of the City Hall to have all the vendors to agree to a short secession of their vending and allow for the roadworks to begin. That came about in November 2017, and the hope was that the works would have been completed before Christmas; a Christmas gift for vendors and shoppers alike, if you will.
Then up came another challenge in the saga; the uncooperative weatherman; well Noah, didn’t it rain! And so the planned commencement of the works had to be put on hold. Christmas 2017 came and went with the street was still in its horrible condition.

WORK AT LAST

Fortunately, during late January 2018, the opportunity presented itself and the road construction team from the Ministry of Public Infrastructure commenced their long-awaited task. During the operation, I spent long periods observing the work-in-progress, taking photographs and listening to the remarks of vendors and shoppers alike. “We been waitin’ long for this street to get fix,” one vendor told me.
Most of those with whom I spoke, were over-joyed that at last, after so many years of having to endure the terrible condition of the two blocks of Bourda Street, there is now a great improvement; and that really matters. “Is long we did waitin’ for this to happen,” one of the vendors told me with a joyous tone of voice.
There was another wendor who just kept walking up and down the street and saying, “Oh, lawd, ah really feelin’ good”. Posing the question to another about what he would say to him, if Minister David Patterson went by, his response was, “I would tell the Minister, ‘thanks a million’.”

RELIEF
While this project is just the much-needed repairs to two short blocks of a city street, it must be taken into consideration that it has brought relief to many vendors and countless shoppers, whose lives have been impacted in a positive way.