I read Adam Harris’s article (March 7, 2010, Kaieteur News) titled `The City landscape is no longer attractive.’ I agree with most of his comments about the drastic transformation underway and the loss of the joy once gained by simply gazing upon proud structures now gone or changed forever. While it is too late to bring back many of our beautiful wooden buildings, there is still time to save some and improve the urban environment if public and private sectors work together.
I have been living in beautiful Queenstown for the past 17 years and over the past ten have been trying to make it my permanent home by building a sanctuary for birds and visitors staying at my home. Though not perfect, I have always tried to do what I feel is right for the community: planting trees, talking to people about not cutting trees, keeping the trenches and parapets clean (even if someone drops a straw I would pick it up and dispose of it in my garbage can). I have helped to keep Queenstown relatively free of sick and strays dogs and I constantly try to convince pet owners to spay or castrate their animals to avoid over-population (with some positive response). Up until recently, every day in Queenstown felt like a Sunday.
There is a lot of new residential construction in Queenstown, drawn, I suppose, by its reputation for being fairly safe, relatively quiet, lots of beautiful trees, birds, owls, parrots and macaws. Also, it lacks the noise nuisance generated by karaoke bars, loud music, nightclubs. Over the past five years a few businesses have put up cement block structures for office space and apartments.
I live next to an empty lot recently leased to a businessman who lives and runs his business in Queenstown. Over the past few months the empty lot has become an eye sore to Queenstown, becoming a public urinal, a dumping ground for garbage and wooden pallets, a storage area for a 20- foot container, steel pipes, I-beams, used industrial size pipes and sundry other materials.
As my nerves began to unravel a friend told me that was the price of living next to an empty lot, but in early March things reached the breaking point when one day there were six men in the vacant lot with two generators, welding machines, torches, cutting tools and all the noise that goes along with industrial fabrication. I tried but failed to make peace with the noise and went into my bedroom in tears.
On March 8, 2010, I heard a loud bang, saw flames shooting into the air and then workers running with buckets of water from across the street and a fire extinguisher; traffic stopped and neighbours were looking on (pictures were taken). I saw the owner of the business and pointed out that this was a residential and not an industrial area and fires were not allowed. I was shocked when this “well connected” businessman said something to the effect that he could start a fire next to my house. He also said he was in the process of buying the vacant lot and would be turning it into a factory and would drive me out of the area. He told his employees to continue working.
Gravely concerned, I called the EPA and told them what the man had said, they took my report over the phone and advised me to make a report to the police. I went to Alberttown Police Station, made a report and was advised on how to handle the matter. A police officer came to my home, assessed the situation, determined there was a noise nuisance from the generators and requested that the businessman and I go to the station.
The businessman told the police officer he would remove the generators in 2 to 3 days and in the meantime would finish what he was doing, but would relocate the generators from the driveway next to my home and place them on the parapet of Forshaw Street. I agreed to live with the situation but the next day it got worse. I called back Alberttown Police Station and two police officers came to my home and once again determined that there was a noise nuisance. Soon three EPA employees came to my house, one came into my house with a monitor, and confirmed indeed there was a noise nuisance. Around 3:30 pm the businessman removed the large metal pipes he was working on and the loud generator and peace once again came back into my life, albeit briefly.
The next day, a generator was back in the empty lot and the businessman employees started work on a new project, building huge advertising signs for a bank out of pipe and metal sheets. Even though the generator had a “silencer,” the humming reverberated throughout my house but I put up with it. The next day at 5:50 pm, I asked the employees (3 in the yard) when they would be turning off the generator, one rudely said “7:00 pm” but another politely said “just now”. The “businessman” then went to the Alberttown Police Station and made a report that I was harassing his workers. On Monday, March 16th, this “well connected” businessman broke his word to the Police and brought back the loud generator, parking it on the Forshaw Street parapet and started welding.
Once again, the police were called and they promptly came around and heard the noise. When asked, the “businessman” admitted to the Officer in Charge that he did not have a permit to do that type of work.
To make a long story shorter, we went before the court; the businessman pleaded guilty with explanation and was fined.
While we were at the police station on March 8/10, the “businessman” told the Police Officer, that a group of businessman had a meeting with the City Council and they were going to turn Queenstown into a commercial/industrial area. When I spoke with Central Housing and Planning Authority (CHPA) they said that was news to them. In an attempt to facilitate transparency I sent copies of a letter documenting my actions to our Home Affairs Minister, CHPA and City Council.
Residential Queenstown should not be turned into a commercial or industrial area controlled by a few persons with money or “self-endowed power” for personal gain.
There are still parts of Queenstown which are part of our magnificent heritage and holding fond memories for many Guyanese. It can still serve as a model for what a residential area should be. But keeping it so will not be easy; this will only happen if the people who live and own property in residential Queenstown speak out against those who are coming from the outside and spoiling the beautiful area. The residents, with public sector support, should work together to make Queenstown an area where Adam Harris and others go out of their way to gaze upon its historical and new structures.
Thanks to Alberttown Police Station officers, EPA, Home Affairs, CHPA, City Council and the Public Prosecutor for enforcing the law and helping to keep Queenstown a better place to live.
Yours faithfully,
Syeada Manbodh
