The Editor, Sir:

You hit all the right notes in your Editorial on the Government's proposal for redevelopment projects in downtown Kingston. It is hard not to be sceptical of this latest incarnation of the oft-proposed - never realised - idea of a restored capital city. Even so, people who care about the notion of a vibrant downtown are inclined to keep faith.

As you rightly point out, a bona fide commitment should begin with the Government taking the lead in moving its operations back to the capital. No amount of new or renovated facilities can compensate for people breathing life into the city's streets, stimulating varied social and economic activity along the way. One sure and costly way for present efforts to fail is to ignore this interplay.

Relocating Prime Minister's residence

I would take your proposal a step further and suggest the relocation of the Prime Minister's residence downtown as well. By residence, I'm not talking simply about cement and blocks, I am talking about somewhere the Prime Minister would actually live.

This would mean abandoning the long established practice of prime ministers living in their personal dwelling, inevitably far removed from downtown. I once floated this idea to a friend who countered that it would not be safe for the Prime Minister to live downtown. I find this position unacceptable.

If the Prime Minister cannot be made safe downtown, then pity the poor who must live there without the benefit of 24-hour police protection.

Happily, I do not believe this is the case - quite the opposite. Not only could the Prime Minister be made safe downtown, it is my strong feeling that such presence would have spillover security benefits. But far beyond any tangible benefit, as a signal of leadership commitment, I cannot think of a more forceful step.

Time for bold, sustained push

The time is right for a bold, sustained push at restoring the city as the epicentre of Jamaica's political, economic and cultural life. I encourage Prime Minister Bruce Golding to put a clear stake in the ground on this issue by pushing for a formal Prime Minister's residence in the heart of downtown.

Perhaps on blind faith, I envision a vibrant downtown anchored by a new Parliament building, a lived-in Prime Minister's residence and a reggae hall of fame. The hall of fame (deserving of a separate letter to the editor), I would suggest, is a great galvanising project around which to retask the seemingly moribund Kingston City Centre Improvement Company.

I am, etc.,

SHELDON LYN

sheldon.lyn@gmail.com