Delroy Chuck JAMAICA, ONE of the most beautiful places that eyes can behold, a land of wood and water, of rolling mountains and beautiful plains, has not developed in an organised, beautiful or attractive manner. Our urban and rural towns lack planning, are deprived of capital investment, neglected and allowed to deteriorate. At present, our cities and towns lack beauty and charm, the decaying and ugly buildings make them visually repulsive and, everywhere, the desperate need for urban planning and renewal is evident.
The Urban Development Corporation (UDC), a body that was once synonymous with urban planning and renewal, has truly lost its sense of mission and purpose. In the sixties, the UDC played a significant role in the expansion and development of the Ocho Rios, Montego Bay and Downtown waterfronts. Nowadays, it has been reduced to a supervisory role, overseeing small projects, and providing small community amenities. In recent years, it has been largely associated with the Lift Up Jamaica programme, building sidewalks, repairing community facilities and building inner-city bathrooms and pit latrines. How many town planners, architects, engineers, surveyors and other professionals, we need to ask, now work at the UDC?
DEDICATED PLANNERS
If our cities and towns are to develop and be renewed in an orderly, organised and aesthetically pleasing style then the country needs dedicated planners, architects and professionals who can create and provide a variety of development plans for our policy makers, capital investors and the people to buy into. Where are the plans and vision of what Kingston, Montego Bay or any other city and town could become in ten or twenty years? Jamaican cities and towns are decaying and dying because there is no body, like the UDC or the Town and Country Planning Department, that has a vision or blueprint for development or of even what development path we could follow. Can we now understand why our cities, towns and villages are developing in such an unregulated, jumbled and confused fashion?
In the past 15 or so years, the United States Embassy had plans to build its offices on the Liguanea lands where we now have Emancipation Park, then in Manor Park and, presently, has building plans for its embassy in the residential area of Liguanea. In truth, if there were comprehensive plans to redevelop downtown Kingston, then foreign embassies could be located in the commercial districts of the capital city. Now, they are contiguous to residential areas and not surprisingly lack parking facilities and, simultaneously, creating danger and daily nuisances in choice residential areas. Naturally, we cannot and should not blame these overseas missions, they cannot and will not allow their staff to be exposed to the danger and criminality in the depressed areas of the capital city, so they seek the comfort and convenience wherever it can be found.
New Kingston, Liguanea, Manor Park and uptown areas have become traffic jams, highly commercialised, and it won't be long before they become urban ghettos. At the same time, the commercial districts of Downtown, Cross Roads, Half Way Tree and the corridors connecting them have become run-down, dilapidated and unfit to start new business ventures. In fact, businesses are moving out of these areas and seeking better facilities and accommodation elsewhere.
FAILURE TO RENEW DOWNTOWN
To be sure, it is our fault and failure to properly plan and renew Downtown, which used to accommodate virtually all government departments, most of which have moved to safer havens uptown. What message is the government sending when many of its departments run from downtown and find safety and comfort in New Kingston? Is it an abandonment of downtown?
Kingston must not be allowed to die and be a ghost town, which it has become, especially at nights. In truth, Kingston like many other urban towns needs renewal and development. Yet, it can only come with proper plans, a creative vision and a programme of development to recapture our cities and towns.
I have been fortunate to visit many American cities and others around the world to know that many of the modern ones were no different from Kingston, and out of the decay and ghettos modern cities were built. When one sees places like Portland, Oregon; Kansas City; Chicago; Cape Town, South Africa; Sydney, Australia and others, it is not possible to believe the rubble, decay and ghettos that once existed there. However, through comprehensive plans, capital investment and the political determination to rebuild them, they have now become major tourist attractions.
I am aware of the private sector initiative to redevelop downtown. Yet, the UDC must wheel and come again, or liquidate. It must recapture its mission and purpose, start to live up to its name and chart a course of significant urban development. It can start with Downtown Kingston, especially with the 2007 World Cricket Series as an impetus, to remake and rebuild this lovely capital. Downtown Kingston must once again be a destination for cruise liners, a commercial hub where tourists can find bargains as they cruise the Caribbean, a choice place for investors to do business, and a safe city to live and work - it is a vision to inspire our city planners.
Delroy Chuck is an attorney-at-law and Opposition Member of Parliament. He can be contacted by e-mail at Delchuck@Hotmail.Com.
