By Edward Seaga, Contributor 
KSAC bulldozes stalls in downtown Kingston on many occasions. - File
ON WEDNESDAY, February 5, at Jamaica House, the Downtown Kingston Redevelopment Plan was discussed at a meeting chaired by Prime Minister, P. J. Patterson.
According to the plan, it is intended to transform downtown Kingston into the "cultural entertainment centre of the Caribbean and Jamaica's premier business centre".
When the development of downtown Kingston was promoted by me and implemented by the Urban Development Corporation (UDC) in the late 1960s, the objective was to make the area the financial capital of the English-speaking Caribbean by the location of the Bank of Jamaica and other financial buildings and institutions.
That did not work because the area developed an image in the 1970s of being unstable, a feature which did not exist and could not have been forseen when the plans were created in the 1960s.
As a consequence, an opening was created for New Kingston to become the financial centre of Jamaica. As a consequence, major development in downtown Kingston slowed to a trickle leaving the area in a depressed state, despite the attractive highrise coastline development which was created as the first phase of the plan.
The new objectives of creating a "cultural and entertainment centre of the Caribbean and Jamaica's Business Centre" will likewise fail if the instability of the downtown area is not dealt with.
PROBLEMS
The Downtown Kingston Redevelopment Plan, as presented, makes it clear that the problems of the area can be solved by a heavy presence of the security forces, including the positioning of surveillance cameras at strategic street locations.
The area does have security problems in crime and violence. But the problem did not begin with crime and violence. The origin of the problem is the conditions which produce crime and violence. The Planning Institute of Jamaica (PIOJ) states the problem well in sections 3.2 and 3.2.1. of the Plan: "The characteristics of the people who live, work and visit the downtown area and its surrounding communities are also influenced by the physical and environmental conditions in the area. For example, because the prevailing condition of the housing stock is sub-standard and the provision of social amenities are either inadequate or non-existent, the majority of residents are likely to be poor, with major unmet socio-economic needs. Usually, these communities are located in close geographic proximity to the central business districts."
In general, the communities have high proportions of female-headed households and large numbers of children and youth. They tend to be characterised by social disintegration, as evidenced by high levels of inter-personal conflict, domestic violence and gang warfare.
The prevalence of violence and crime engenders considerable fear among children and has far-reaching social effects, such as contributing to low school attendance and eventual early withdrawal from the education system.
Low levels of educational achievement and skills, along with inadequate income-generating opportunities result in high levels of unemployment, underemployment and illegal earning activities. These are some of the direct causes of personal poverty of inner-city households. The poor physical conditions compound the situation and engender an overall environment of deprivation and decay.
The negative social, economic and physical factors reinforce and perpetuate each other and residents who are socially excluded from the wider society become locked in a downward spiral as they utilise socially disruptive or personally destructive behaviour to resolve their problems.
These include early childbearing to gain economic support and illegal activities such as drug trafficking or extortion to earn an income, and donmanship to gain prestige. Other related contributory factors include low levels of homeownership and absentee landlords.
Non-residents then stigmatise the communities and innocent residents find themselves unable to obtain a good job outside the area in order to better themselves.
The main underlying problems are unemployment, education and housing. I propose to outline these problems in this presentation on the Downtown Kingston Improvement Plan.
DOOMED TO FAIL?
The plan offers some improvements to the main business district, from Duke Street to Orange Street, but mostly King Street and Harbour Street.
The improvement is largely built around a clean-up of the business district by removal of the over-crowding created by a large number of illegal sidewalk vendors, principally in the Princess Street-Beckford Street area. It also proposes the relocation of the buses which now terminate at parade, congesting the area.
While it is proposed that the buses are to be relocated to vacant lands near the railway, in keeping with the original plan for re-development prepared in the 1960s, no such plan was presented for the displaced vendors. They are to be kept out of the area by the security forces who play a prominent role in this new re-development plan.
The original plan of the 1960s, fleshed out in the 1980s, provided for the development of the market district as the other half of the overall plan so that commercial and market districts would be both improved to satisfactory levels.
The plan presented at Jamaica House made little provision for improvement of the market district.
Implied in this lopsided development is the intention that vendors must make their own way with what exists in the part-finished development of the smaller markets and the relatively untouched dilapidated Coronation Market which is, by far, the main market in the system.
The previous plan called for extensive renovation of the Coronation Market, dividing it east-west with a pedestrian walk. This walk-way would traverse the adjoining markets on an east-west axis from Darling Street to West Queen Street. It would open a new pedestrian path running parallel to Spanish Town Road, the main
thoroughfare.
This was a centrepiece of the plan to develop the market as it created two additional prime front lines for vending which would flow with the traffic of some 60,000 people moving in east-west direction each Saturday.
Without this feature to open the market area to new prime vending locations which can attract vendors and customers, development of the market district will fail.
As the plan now stands, the strategy is to lock-out the vendors from the positions they now illegally occupy and push them into dungeon-like or open air, roofless, market locations exposed to the heat of the sun and the dirt of the day. This is to be enforced and maintained by a strong presence of the security forces.
The security forces cannot pressure customers to follow vendors into degraded market places. The end result will be that vendors will avoid the markets and return to locations on the street or to other illegal areas.
The other option is that thousands of vendors will have to abandon vending and become unemployed. Between vendors and their families, 30,000 persons could be affected.
Knowing the resilience of Jamaican vendors and their determination to ensure a living for themselves, the carefully-crafted plan which highlights the business district will come under continuous pressure if this one-sided, half-a-plan, proceeds as now drafted.
The UDC, which the Prime Minister has appointed the executing agency for the Downtown Kingston Re-development, as it was under the JLP government, has the complete plan for the development of the market district. That plan cannot be ignored.
It has to be included as a part of the over-all rejuvenation of the downtown area or the over-all plan will fail. If a plan has to depend on the security forces to enforce it, something is lacking.
That 'something' is the plan for the development of the market district which is in the hands of the UDC. Until it is decided to make this plan a part of the overall development, I cannot support the one-sided, half-a-plan presented.
In a separate article I will deal with the housing and education conditions of the area and their relationship to the market district.
Edward Seaga is the Leader of the Opposition
