THE EDITOR, Sir:I READ with dismay but not disbelief, a report in the Gleaner of Friday, March 5 of the decision by the Kingston and St. Andrew Corporation to allow the conversion of Bamboo Avenue from a public thoroughfare to a gated community. While sympathising with the purported security concerns of residents, it is incomprehensible that the KSAC would not be guided by a proper assessment of the traffic implications from the competent authority the National Works Agency (NWA).
Moreover, the conversion of Bamboo Avenue into a gated community is a bad precedent. If this is allowed, what then is to stop the people of Ottawa Avenue, Munroe Road, Wellington Drive or Karachi Avenue from lobbying for the same privilege with its unspeakable implications for traffic flow?
This action by the municipal body is further demonstration of its mind-boggling inconsistency in these matters. Bamboo Avenue, a public thoroughfare, is being made into a gated community at the same time as that of the Tavanore Court complex, just up the road; a community located within a cul-de-sac and served (in the KSAC's own words) by a private road has been denied permission to establish a gated community.
This is the same KSAC that gave permission for the Waterfalls a veritable nightclub masquerading under the facade of a 'multi-purpose venue' to set up operations adjacent to an established residential complex. This 'fabulous' nuisance has been creating a literal nightmare for those people, resulting in no fewer than four families having moved out of the area since the arriving of Waterfalls with its night noise and customer parking problems.
And what of the long-suffering people at Kings Mews off Waterloo Road another community within a cul-de-sac, which has for years been denied their request for a gated community?
If the Bamboo Avenue decision is a move to create a security buffer zone for the proposed new US Embassy the KSAC should say so.
I am, etc.,
HUNTLEY MEDLEY
realhunter_1@yahoo.com
Kingston
