Garth Rattray | What are our urban planners thinking?

Fancy sounding labels for government departments are one thing, but evidence of their [good] works is something else. All around me I am witnessing a constant and rapid degeneration of our society, and this is being facilitated by government inaction and/or perhaps inefficient and/or corrupt practices.

Cities, especially the Kingston and St Andrew area, are crammed and the practice of increasing the density of people within them seems to be some sort of policy driven by convenience and ‘prosperity’ among a very select group of individuals. High-rise apartments are sprouting like toadstools within many residential communities where [usually] single-family dwellings existed and interfaced in neighbourly fashion. Now, towering, predominant structures loom skyward and force the propagation of similar opprobrious multiple-dwellings edifices that challenge the local amenities, while alienating citizens and destroying community spirit.

I recall, many years ago, having caught wind of a planned development nearby. Nobody informed the community. Despite requests, the developer of the intended high-rise structure flatly refused to meet with the community leaders. I tried to speak with the (then) mayor, and just like the other mayors that followed, with whom I attempted to make contact for other important matters, I was brushed aside by this public official who was elected into office. How dare an ‘ordinary’ citizen try to seek audience with someone so elevated! Instead, the mayor’s secretary condescended to speak with me. I explained the community’s need for information, concerns and fears, but, with an annoyed and angry tone, she told me that she knew the community and we should simply adjust or move out!

On the one hand, the authorities speak about community spirit, and community safety, and communities cooperating with the police to monitor for unusual strangers (who may be internally displaced or relocated criminals). Yet, on the other hand, the same authorities disenfranchise, disempower, effectively emasculate, and ignore communities by allowing developers to ‘invade’ them and turn a blind eye to the obviously creeping commercialisation that uglifies, devalues, and criminalises previously quiet and peaceful communities. They can’t have it both ways.

POWERLESS

There was a time when any changes to the community required a ‘petition’ that was agreed upon and signed by the people in the neighbourhood. Nowadays, anybody can do anything, anywhere and the community is powerless to do anything about it. When a municipality dismisses or ignores the concerns and rights of neighbouring citizens within communities, the entire society eventually pays the price.

When a certain ilk can use their prosperity money, their connections, or the fact that they are among the grassroots voters who the government is afraid to upset, neighbourhoods become commercialised with multistorey apartments, commercial businesses, entertainment centres, clubs, bars, sidewalk businesses and garages. No amount of remonstration gets noticed by the authorities. It’s as if regular citizens do not matter, yet they wonder why so few of them go to the polls during elections.

A consequence of the density within the cities is the choking traffic. Way back in the 1980s, my father, of blessed memory, sounded the alarm that our peak hours would become peak days of traffic congestion. He literally ‘grew up’ in the (then) Kingston and St Andrew Corporation (KSAC). He eventually became the City Engineer but his ideas for traffic management were swept under the rug.

Previously, he was a building surveyor, and, during the summer, I used to accompany him while he inspected many building sites. I watched him precariously climb wooden [makeshift] ladders to see, firsthand what was going on. On several occasions he would have reason to insist on changes to whatever the owners or contractors were doing, in order to have them adhere to the submitted and approved building plans, safety regulations, covenants, and zoning.

IN CHARGE

Back in the day, the KSAC was in charge of many things, including the paving and repair of many roadways. It is by listening to him speak to the contractors and seeing him inspect the integrity of the substrates and asphalt that I learnt of the need for proper choices of substrate material, the sizes of the stones deep below the surface, the nature of the soil deep down, the importance of compacting the marl and the various thickness of the asphalt used, depending on the expected loads. Evidently, that dedication to duty, and that level of oversight no longer exists.

I am bewildered and baffled by many things. Traffic congestion is at a critical point, but we are not hearing of any concrete plans to tackle this very serious problem. People are [literally] forced to sit in long, serpentine, and snail-paced traffic for hours just to get from place to place. This necessity is a massive loss of hours and burns off incalculable litres of precious and expensive fuel while almost standing still.

Despite the recent extensive work on several ‘corridors’, some of us foresaw that our city roads would become rapidly saturated with motor vehicles. Many pedestrians must stand for hours waiting for public transport because the buses, minibuses, and route taxis are also stuck in traffic and creeping along as the hours roll by. Because of the wasted time, expensive fuel, air pollution, and city heat, the entire country suffers because of poor planning.

Despite the already dense city population, urban warming, the destruction of communities, and untenable traffic jams, there is more cramming within the cities with no end in sight. What are our urban planners thinking?

Garth Rattray is a medical doctor with a family practice, and author of ‘The Long and Short of Thick and Thin’. Send feedback to columns@gleanerjm.com and garthrattray@gmail.com.