City Hall addressing flooding, crime at route 42 bus park

Mayor of Georgetown, Patricia Chase Green has noted that City Hall is in talks to address the woes of the Route 42 (Timehri to Georgetown) bus park, which is presently stationed on High Street, opposite Ashmins Trading, which was flooded and was ultimately displaced on Tuesday, even as it remains a criminal hotspot.
She made this comment on Wednesday during an interview with Guyana Times. Chase Green explained that the “Mayor and City Council (M&CC), the Traffic Department and all agencies are having discussions on the way forward on this matter.”
In relation to the flooding which resulted in the already displaced park being displaced on Tuesday, the Mayor would only say, “as soon as the tide goes down the water recedes”, noting that the administration is looking into the situation, which is evidently affecting not only drivers but commuters.
“We are looking at it and we are looking at it to see how best we can work with the bus drivers and other agencies around the area,” the Mayor added.
Although the M&CC would have partnered with the Traffic Department in A Division (Georgetown), Chase Green said she was unable to say how often the bus parks are monitored by Police, given that it is a haven for thieves and prostitutes.
Numerous calls made by this publication to contact the Divisional Commander, Marlon Chapman went unanswered.
As the intermittent rains poured on Tuesday, several Timehri bus park operators demanded that City Hall relocate their temporary bus park which is prone to flooding. They were relocated from Stabroek Square, Georgetown to High Street, Georgetown to facilitate the temporary transfer of displaced stall owners at the deteriorating Stabroek Market Wharf.
Tuesday morning’s floodwaters resulted in the operators being displaced, which some termed a river. Others view the location as a hotbed of illicit activities, including crime and prostitution.

“Imagine we mixing with the prostitutes and the thieves, school children going to lessons and coming home lil late, people working and going home in the evenings and even foreigners who use the public transportation to be taken to the airport, all of we have to be in between thieves and prostitutes, no respect they (City Hall) don’t have for we,” an operator explained.
Operators related also that they had to beg the Traffic Department to grant them permission to park outside the nearby Ashmins store with strict instructions to return to the assigned High Street parking space on Wednesday.
Some operators even said the Mayor is not looking into their interests.
Everton Pole, who has been operating for some 20 years, said minibus operators make a significant contribution towards transportation in Guyana. He berated City Hall’s treatment of the operators.
“Let’s say that they want to relocate us from there, what is wrong with having consultations with us, what is wrong with meeting us and letting us have an input into this thing… They are treating us like animals, like we are moving from one pasture to the next… They had no discussion with us at all,” Pole explained.
Christopher Johnny, a passenger, chimed in with the operators to vent his frustration, calling for the Mayor to vacate her post.
“It’s very bad here because in the night you could come and get rob. Like the Mayor just get up with a dream and say that the park has to be moved. She ain’t know what she doing, like she own the town… I want the Mayor to come out of office…” Johnny remarked.