THE COUNTRY (whether through private developers or public agencies) spends a huge amount every year, trying to build new apartment complexes, new housing schemes and new office space to cope with the huge urban demand.
It is, therefore, paradoxical that at the same time as so much cement, steel and financial
capital are being used to make new infrastructure to meet these needs, that elsewhere in the urban areas lie many housing schemes and public buildings that are slowly depreciating from under-use or urban violence.
Talk about inefficiency. The Kingston Restoration Company Limited has a huge task on its hands trying to persuade government agencies to make it downtown again, much less trying to attract private developers to
revitalise downtown Kingston.
One only has to drive through many areas of what we now call 'prime uptown' to realise that almost every idle space that was once a bush-lot or a callaloo bed is being converted into a car lot, an apartment complex, or a church. In the meantime what were once pristine residential areas are slowly depreciating from urban flight and violence.
I am talking about Rae Town, Jones Town, Allman Town and Lower Mountain View Avenue, in what are fast becoming exodus zones.
And even areas like the Red Hills Road arc between Lee's Food Fair and Supersavers Supermarkets have become
run-down and property values have started to plunge in what one could call a fairly new urban scheme given that a lot of it was built up in the 1960s.
POLITICAL UNDERDEVELOPMENT
It is largely as a result of
political underdevelopment and the lack of urban planning that we can waste such scarce capital resources where established infrastructure is allowed to deteriorate and crumble, as political goons capture, intimidate and eventually control some of these areas.
When the architects of the politicisation of such areas move on with their lives, what about the older set of house-owning residents in these areas who can no longer afford to move elsewhere as they get inundated with squatter communities, petty theft of items, and the sound systems at night?
These retired persons have no other country to go to, having put the bulk of their life savings into acquiring what they thought would be a quiet retirement home. With the rise of political violence which spread from the politically built enclaves in the 1970s, these squatter settlements have created their own communities, providing a heavy voting bloc for some politicians. Hence, why they do not get disturbed or removed as the existing citizens' community organisations have not used their political mobilisation very well to resist the encroachment.
FAMILIAR PATTERN
Over time, however, we can see a familiar pattern where the once prominent area schools eventually get run down (can
anybody see a future link between Central Branch in the 1960s and where St. Richards Primary may well end up in say 2015)?
The guns bark, people move out, businesses follow suit and eventually the area becomes run down and decrepit. It then turns on its own carcass and becomes a place to be avoided if possible, where even the area dons who have benefited the most from the disorder don't even set up their prime residence there.
The situation that I have described is not irreversible. It does not have to persist. To reverse it will, however, require more efficient use of urban planning and a much stronger approach to policing and public order. It will need enough of us to say "no more".
STEEP TOLL FEES
We cannot keep fleeing to
dormitory communities outside Kingston and St. Andrew, and then have to pay steep toll fees to traverse back into our work areas, while once viable urban communities are left to criminal elements to control. The buck must stop somewhere.
We have to start demanding accountability for this blatant misuse of scarce land and
capital.
NOTE: We apologise to Mr. Forrest and our readers for
failing to properly identify his article '2005 Cabinet grading' carried in the Financial Gleaner last week.
Taken from the Financial Gleaner, Friday, December 9, 2005.
