Dear Editor,
City parking and parking meters is a hot topic these days, and the atmosphere of hostility which surrounds this issue is very common whenever the system is challenged. But we are now living in different times brought about by continuing advances in technology over a very short period. The social media are now a great force to be reckoned with, as we here in Guyana saw during the last elections and are seeing again over the parking meter issue. Whenever a people feel strongly or threatened by social issues, social media will automatically kick in.
The Movement Against Parking Meters, a non-political and peaceful movement which got started when just one person on WhatsApp suggested that it was time to show our resistance, in less than 3 hours had over three hundred persons weighing in with their responses. In less than 2 weeks they were able to galvanize thousands of supporters forcing those few who started it to act quickly with stickers, flyers, and other methods of communication. It grew so strong that it successfully pulled off a protest of hundreds in just a few days. This surely is remarkable and has never been done in Guyana by any movement political or non-political, that I have ever seen.
The city and its PR agents are doing everything they can to turn things in their favour, but this meter issue resonates deeply with all citizens who never saw the draconian action of the parking meter roll-out coming their way.
So, our city fathers need revenue especially since they are unable to collect the millions owing to them in rates and taxes which they neglected to do much about, or could not do much about over the last few decades. All of sudden, the new first family of the council has awoken and decided if they can’t collect from these delinquent taxpayers then they are going to make all of us pay up (Peter will pay for Paul).
True, some of us were aware of the coming parking meters through some PR bits and pieces on TV and in the press, but never foresaw the implementation being forced on us as it was. Our citizens were not engaged through a survey, or sensitized in the media as we are normally accustomed to seeing when major changes like parking meters are about to happen.
Why only a few focus groups, we are constantly told were consulted? What about a national or at least a city survey to gather information on how, where, why and at what cost this thing should be introduced? Further were there any other studies on the economic impact, etc, done and if so what were the findings?
It is one thing to argue for modernization but it must be consistent with the economic realities that exist. Our people are burdened because of a tax-driven economy that keeps asking us to pay more and more from our meagre wages. Our level of unemployment is very high and a large number of employees work at the lower to middle end of the retail trade and have to take care of their own and extended family members out of these low wages.
The parking meter contract that has been forced on us is cruel, not to mention highly suspicious, since it is a well-guarded one. Instead of the city council getting defensive and talking down to its citizens calling them backward and elitist, it should reach out, late as it is, and find better, more constructive ways to deal with it before a larger crisis develops.
We the citizens of Georgetown are very upset at the council’s take-it-or-leave-it attitude.
The M&CC and Smart City Solutions can’t be so smart if they continue to ignore the protest of the social media Movement Against Parking Meters.
We humbly implore the Mayor and Councillors to discuss this in a more civil way to find a better solution which is acceptable to all the citizens of Georgetown and its environs. Our future depends on it.
Yours faithfully,
Bernard Ramsay
