Guyanese Online

Some places on earth are stunning just as they are – Utah’s Bryce Canyon; the rock formations of the Pitons in St. Lucia; the Canadian Rocky Mountains; Kaieteur Falls in Guyana; Seven Mile Beach in Grand Cayman Island – but many of the beautiful places we encounter in the more affluent countries are actually landscapes converted into eye-catching scenery by development and enhancement.

We go to these places and see these things, and don’t always consider that beautiful settings are often generated by a combination of landscape and visionary development; in other words, substantial financial investment is behind them. In similar fashion, if we had the resources to do it, there are sections of Guyana that could be made into stunning landscapes. We pass them every day, impervious to the potential.

If, for example, the East Coast Road stretching from, say Courida Park to upper Camp Road, existed in the affluent world, it would be made into a scenic experience. The potential is clearly there. The range of possibilities is quite wide, but here’s one example of how it could go: The median in the centre of the roadway, coming west, all the way to the Russian Embassy bend, would be planted with a variety of short flowering shrubs (red, yellow, blue, etc.). The seawall to the right would be painted in colourful designs, and selected advertising, varying every 20 yards or so, all the way to the Kitty foreshore. Behind the wall, on the land side, would be short light poles, similar to the ones in the median, to provide illumination to the space at night, and every so often a wooden abutment to the wall holds a pair of benches where people can sit without blocking walkers..

I’m going to pull off and take a rest by Conversation Tree – I’m exhausted by all this work – but I’m sure you get the idea. That stretch of East Coast landscape that we sail by unnoticed every day is a potential bonanza as opposed to the somewhat neglected corridor spectacle it now presents.

The upgrading would essentially generate social benefits – beautification and recreation use – but there will also be financial ones: properly zoned, the area would become attractive to certain businesses and land value will appreciate. Tourists would “ooh” and “aah” over it. Residents would take pictures and send to their diaspora contacts. It would become a model for other areas to emulate; the public image enhancement would be substantial.

Of course, talk is cheap; to create the needed transformation will take copious amounts of money and cooperation among various government departments – both conditions which are sometimes lacking now. But we need to start thinking along these lines, so if and when the oil money becomes available, we would have some ideas waiting on where it can be effectively applied..

In that same context, however, we can do something immediately that would go a long way to repair the often bedraggled appearance of our city limits. Government could cut the grass which is greatly overgrown in many places, including in residential developments. It wouldn’t take an astronomical sum to trim those public grass pieces, there are many, and each homeowner could follow suit for a few dollars, all resulting in a beautiful part of town. Good idea?

Dave Martin and the Tradewinds – Music Video

Dave Martin and the Tradewinds 1987 visit to Washington DC