‘Hair Stylists/Cosmetologists Row’ an eyesore

Dear Editor,
The person(s) from the Mayor and Councillors of the City of Georgetown who is/are responsible for conceptualising, creating and maintaining the ‘Hair Stylists/Cosmetologists Row’ on the Merriman Mall should be utterly ashamed of his or herself.
This area has not only become an absolute eyesore, but indeed a national disgrace from an aesthetic and public health perspective.
First, removing these unlicensed, unregistered and itinerant vendors from around the downtown area and dumping them on the mall, was a most irresponsible, hasty and thoughtless act by a municipal official whose responsibility it is to ensure the integrity of the city.
Second, providing them with those cheap, flimsy, impermanent tents, could not have been a serious solution for vending for a period exceeding three months. They have now been all but completely destroyed by the vagaries of our weather systems, with the collapsible aluminium poles replaced by wooden and galvanised steel pipes, with wooden pallets being used for the flooring but worse, the polyester that formed the cover has been replaced by hideous pieces of vinolay, plastic, plywood, and every other conceivable material the vendors can lay their hands on.
Quite recently we had the President unveiling a bust on this very mall to commemorate the life of Claude Alphonso Merriman to whom this mall is named, but still the City Council chooses to take a divergent position by desecrating the mall.
This is quite simply an insult to the memory of Merriman, his family and the Guyanese public. But then again it is quite clear that the bigwigs at City Hall have been given carte blanche to do as they feel, as they proceed down a road of the destruction of our capital, privation on the citizens and dishonour to the Government of the day.

Sincerely,
Sean Levius