Retail trade is now in a death spiral

Feb 09, 2017 Letters

Dear Editor,
Mayor Chase-Green’s outrageous comment that she has the support of the business community on the parking meter project should be forcefully condemned by the private sector of Guyana. I would recommend that the Mayor step outside her ivory tower for a few minutes and stroll down Regent Street or Water Street and witness first-hand the destruction of commercial activity in the heart of the city. And for good effect she should ask our hands-off President to accompany her on her foray. There is no need to commission a feasibility study or for businesses to do an audit.
The Mayor’s parking meters have emptied the streets of cars, and of customers. Retail trade is now in a death spiral and by logical extension, so is the city itself. So, the twenty or so staff that the Mayor is proud of hiring for the parking meter exercise would be dwarfed by the hundreds that could be laid off in the weeks and months ahead. The order the mayor and her people have imposed on Georgetown is the order of the cemetery, and she would have earned the singular distinction of being the Mayor to have presided over the death of the capital city, and indeed the economy of Guyana.
And for the Mayor to blithely state that only the well-to-do are against the parking meters is a hideous lie. In fact, quite the converse holds true. It is the average middle-class worker who suffers the most under this parking meter regimen. How can an employee devote over 25% of their take-home salary to parking? The Mayor and City Council have done what no political party has been able to do unite Guyanese of all races and beliefs on one issue.
The boycott of the parking meters has been spontaneous, immediate and cohesive. And miraculously, it has been achieved without any central guiding hand or directives from a committee. Rather, it has been the invisible hand of market forces at work as Adam Smith so eloquently elucidated a few centuries ago. The politicians have been largely driven off the field in this exercise, even though City Hall, in their limited, Manichaean world view would prefer to console themselves with the lie that the resistance to the parking meters is a PPP-driven exercise. The President, true to form, has been his cold, indifferent self.
The PPP has tried to cash in on this gift from the government but their clumsy efforts are transparent to all. And the matter has not been helped by the blisteringly out-of-touch remarks of Mr Rohee. The private sector leaders seem distant and unengaged. The only politicians who have stood out have been those city councillors in opposition to this nefarious scheme, in particular the Deputy Mayor and his future replacement. Which begs the larger question, are the views of these fine gentlemen in consort with those of their political party? Certainly not, if one is to judge from the comments of their newly anointed leader.
Today, Thursday there will be another silent protest, and I call on the people of Guyana to come out and show their support, including all those who are burdened by house payments, car payments, the rising cost of living and now this latest atrocity coming down the pipeline. I make a special appeal to the business owners, especially those who are experts at complaining within their friendly confines but were glaringly absent at last week’s protests. Do not be intimidated by the presence of the Mayor and Town Clerk. Show the Mayor exactly how much support she has.
City Businessman

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