THE EDITOR, Sir:
I REFER to Mr. Hartley Neita's article "A new Legislative Building" in today's Gleaner (Sunday, January 18th). It was well researched and cleverly written to justify the location of the proposed new building at National Heroes Park.
On October 13th, 2003 I wrote an article in your newspaper "Where do the children play" suggesting the creation of a sports park at the northern section of the park, where any little barefooted boy or girl could walk in and say "boss! I would like to learn to box, do a little putting, drive a few golf balls, play a little tennis, squash, table tennis etc. etc."
The fact is, in the early 1960's the Government of the day 'seized' the park which was previously known as Race Course later to become George VI Memorial Park from the poor people of the inner city and annexed a part for a burial ground and virtually buried the park as a recreational ground for the people.
The only decent thing for this government to do is to return the unused section back to the people. It could be the crowning glory of Mr. Patterson as he seeks to demit office and would supercede Emancipation Park as a gift to the people. I have written to the Prime Minister and the Minister of Sports with the suggestion. Perhaps they are still pondering the merits of it.
In my view, the new Parliament building should be located downtown. Perhaps on the site of the old Myrtle Bank Hotel or better still on the site of the General Penitentiary. It's location downtown would give an impetus to the redevelopment of the inner city if there is any intent whatsoever to commence this process.
The general penitentiary is an eyesore which stands on prime real estate in down town Kingston overlooking the harbour and the airport. The prison should be located in a rural area with vast acreage of agricultural land on which 1,500 inmates could grow food and/or manmufacture desks, chairs and benches for our schools.
We do not want a state-of-the-art American prison. We need a tropical, secure, safe and clean environment. Those that are eventually released would leave prison with a skill to better enable them to cope in the society.
Let's put people first.
I am, etc.,
AL RICHARDS
alfonz112@cwjamaica.com
