The ruling party has never been noted for its aesthetic sensibility, but what most distinguishes it is the fact that whenever confronted with an open urban space it is overcome by the compulsion to fill it with a concrete monstrosity. The notion that city dwellers have a need for open green areas and recreational grounds is entirely alien to the denizens of Freedom House.
Years ago they granted a generous slice of the Botanical Gardens for the Chinese to build what must be Georgetown’s most unprepossessing embassy architecturally speaking, although in fairness to them at a much earlier stage Burnham had driven a road through the gardens and had allowed his wife to farm a portion of the land. Farms can revert to their original state, however; huge concrete embassies cannot. The least that can be said in this instance is that neither the PNC nor the PPP had any interest in what had once been one of the world’s leading tropical gardens.
Early on in its stewardship of this country the PPP/C government had turned its eyes to open spaces in Bel Air Park, but this ambition was eventually abandoned in its larger aspect. It was not the only one to have designs on some part of Bel Air. The City Council in 2018 devised a plan to build on Bel Air and Farnum playgrounds, but the coalition government then in office intervened to stop it. Perhaps the reputation of the capital’s local government was somewhat salvaged last month with a report about work beginning to transform the large plot of unused land at Eping Avenue, Bel Air Park, into a ‘green’ space to benefit residents of the community.
D’Urban Park too has been the target in the past of elaborate PPP government building plans. Interestingly in this instance it was none other than Mrs Janet Jagan who spoke out against the project, arguing for the need for green spaces in the city. The degradation of Merriman Mall which has gone on over the years has not just involved the government, but has required considerable assistance from a series of PNCR/APNU-controlled city councils.
Back in office again it seems the present government’s obsession with eliminating green recreational spaces has not abated. It was reported in our Sunday edition that the Qatari investor who plans to build a hotel on Carifesta Avenue will be doing so on the grounds of the Guyana National Service and the National Insurance Scheme. The grandiose proposal involves a boardwalk along the seawall from Camp Road to the Kitty roundabout.
The project was first announced by President Irfaan Ali at the private sector’s anniversary dinner last December, although at the time he did not specify the name of the company or the actual site for the hotel. What he did say, however, was that it tied in with his government’s Urban Renewal Plan. “We’ll see the Urban Renewal Plan which involves the building of the massive hotel, conference and entertainment facility along Carifesta, commencing next year,” he was quoted as saying. If this project is anything to go by, in the eyes of the government, urban renewal, it seems, involves the eradication of green recreational space.
It is not just that the President envisages a “modern boardwalk”, it is also that he envisions Guyana aspiring to be the “entertainment capital of the region.” This would be achieved by having development plans to build local infrastructure to ensure this would be the destination many would seek. “We are already acutely aware with the fact that once we develop this capacity with all these new roads and new hotels and new restaurants, we have to be able to bring people in, bring consumers in to take care of the demand,” he was quoted as saying.
While most people would probably not object to having a boardwalk, one wonders why it is he has convinced himself that tourists seeking entertainment, as opposed to adventure, would choose this country over long-established island destinations with blue sea and sand to boot. It is not as if the average visitor would rush to plunge into Guyana’s brown waters, whatever the quality of the evening entertainment, and so far all he has mentioned in that regard are hotels and restaurants. PPP governments have promoted casinos, of course, although whether they would attract the kind of overseas clientele the majority of residents in this country would happy about, is another matter.
It seems that this new boardwalk is viewed as providing recreation space for local people (although not green recreation space). Vice President Jagdeo has given the assurance that no one will be barred from using it. When asked about the status of the lands for the hotel he responded that based on the documents the government has they are state lands. “No, no, no, they are not in trust; none of them. The lands were checked and they are public lands,” he was quoted as saying.
Not everyone was so sure. Former Mayor Hamilton Green in a letter to this newspaper called the project an “abomination” and a “flagrant violation of a covenant given to the people of Georgetown …” We reported that the lands along what is now Carifesta Avenue were granted to the city in 1887 by the estate of Quintin Hogg under the covenant that they were to be used only for recreational purposes. One might have thought that the Lands and Surveys Commission would have had this on record, and would have so advised the President.
There are two issues: the first is the technical one relating to the status of the land, and whether under the covenant it can be used for commercial purposes. A layperson would have thought not, although this government is not good at observing legal requirements, the Constitution being a case in point.
The second is the fact that the administration steams ahead making plans for open spaces supposedly designed for citizens’ benefit without making any attempt to consult the inhabitants of this city about what they want. Do they really want the government to ‘disappear’ the National Service and NIS grounds to accommodate some huge and possibly unsightly hotel? Even if they are not currently used by the organisations concerned, could they not be given to some other organisation or converted to a similar purpose?
Finally a boardwalk might be a recreational space, but it is not a green space, and research from Belgian universities has demonstrated that children brought up in cities with access to green environments have higher intelligence and fewer behavioural problems than those who do not. A report in the Independent some time ago said that although previous studies had shown that access to green areas was associated with positive outcomes for child development, this was the first time a connection to IQ had been shown. And it is the children with the lowest IQs who showed the most pronounced differences.
Added to this, behaviour relating to attention issues and aggression was reduced in the case of children who were in the neighbourhood of green areas. What was most significant was that there was consistency in terms of results across the various socio-economic groups.
So does President Ali want more intelligent and better behaved city children, or does he want Georgetown to become the entertainment capital of the region? Furthermore, what happened to his earlier claims about wanting to create green spaces in urban areas? Has he changed his mind?
