Editorial - Downtown Kingston on brink of anarchy

THE creeping decay of downtown Kingston has caused alarm on the part of the Jamaica Chamber of Commerce. Incipient anarchy is cited by 1st Vice President Michael Ammar in our front page lead story which in effect is a cry for help.

The western sector on the fringes of the recent violent eruption has spawned projects for renewal. This the chamber is ready to support; but it has now painted a picture of general disorder and ramshackle which is a far cry from a commercial centre with orderly shopping malls and aesthetic amenities.

Lawlessnes and "badmanism" flourish, the Chamber says, in the face of ineffective security personnel. Indeed open vending of balls of ganja is just one index of blatant defiance of the law.

This along with choked streets and sidewalks with market products strewn helter-skelter is typical of the heaviest concentration of market activity which stifles this city sector.

There can be no civic pride in this picture of what is the capital city and a vital hub of commerce. Even the promise to complete a market complex in the west which would ease the congestion in the centre remains uncompleted.

In short, it is probably impossible to impose modern infrastructure with orderly traffic in place of the present free-for-all. It would likely be resisted by the small entrepreneurs who benefit from crowding sidewalks which the bigger merchants are unable to clear; not to mention the petty scufflers who feed on the bustle and confusion.

The chamber makes no mention of some of the more nefarious criminal activity which has been known to take root in the sector. We refer to the incidence of extortion and protection rackets which were said to have spread even uptown.

We suspect that a well developed sense of self-preservation on the part of some victims keeps this evil alive and prospering. But change cannot come without the guts to see it happen.

This cry for help from the Chamber of Commerce needs to be supported by the same level of PSOJ brokering that was applied to the West Kingston crisis. This is warranted if, as the Chamber says, the decay of downtown Kingston threatens the whole country.

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