Time to restore downtown Kingston
Published:Saturday | June 12, 2010 | 12:00 AM
THE EDITOR Sir:
IN MY school days, I was taught that the Kingston Harbour was one of the most beautiful in the world.
Driving to and from the airport this beauty may be observed daily, especially on the way back with the magnificent Blue Mountains in the back ground.
As a young student in the '50s, our banana boat steered up the Thames to the Victoria and Albert dockyards in England ... They were so crowded that it took the captain and the tugboat pilots hours to park the ship in the narrow space available.
A few decades later, the docks on the Thames were no more and the whole area went to rack and ruin.
Today, the area has been regentrified with all manner of developments, including Canary Wharf, a really charming and delightful place to live, close to all the best of entertainment in the world.
redeveloped slum
Baltimore in the United States is another area that had become a 'slum', but was redeveloped as a shopping and entertainment venue.
Yet, none of these areas have the natural beauty of our Kingston Harbour. This is where our parents were born. South Camp Road, Harbour Street and North Street were the heart of the city. Smaller merchants filled the western part of the city to Darling Street.
All this was destroyed in the earthquake of 1907, but the city was rebuilt by our grandfathers and great-grandfathers.
Even with the growth of crime which has gripped downtown Kingston and the infrastructural degradation that has been allowed, there are still brave merchants and other vendors willing to do business in town.
Can you imagine what an opportunity we now have to restore Kingston to its former glory and, indeed, to surpass it?
no winter, more tourists
We will never have to close down anything because of 'winter' like they do 'up north'. Indeed, they will come down to Jamaica to sit on the benches around the harbour, feeling the cooling 'Christmas breeze', viewing the New Year's fireworks display and taking advantage of the better prices in the stores and markets.
I say hail to those companies that have remained downtown: ICD at the eastern end of Harbour Street, The Gleaner Company on North Street, the merchants of King, Orange and Princess streets, and to Digicel who plan to assist in the development of downtown Kingston and relocate their corporate offices to that area.
The Kingston Restoration Company has been working on this for decades ... let us put those plans to good use. This is the time to act.
I am, etc.,
Marilyn Delevante