EDITORIAL: Falmouth: a gritty town with a fancy port

By March of next year, as has been reported elsewhere in this newspaper, the world's largest cruise ship will regularly dock at the new cruise port in Falmouth, on Jamaica's north coast.

Even before then, starting perhaps in November, regular-sized vessels should begin to call at the ultra-modern facility being jointly developed by the Port Authority of Jamaica and Royal Caribbean Cruise Lines at a cost of US$250 million. Royal Caribbean is responsible for the landside portion of the project, such as shops and restaurants, for which it has been soliciting leases and rentals.

But as our reports make clear, there is still much work to be done on Falmouth's port in the seven months to the expected full completion of the facility. So, inevitably, there will still be patches - substantial even - of rawness when the first vessels moor alongside the monumental new pier.

We wish that was the extent of the complaint to be made about the town of Falmouth itself and its long-promised redevelopment, which appeared to have taken on a new urgency when the development of the cruise-ship facility was first contemplated earlier in the decade. Falmouth is in pretty bad, even rotten, shape.

No effective action

Its concentration of Georgian-style buildings have mostly fallen into disrepair. There have been many proposals and schemes for their salvaging and rehabilitation. Unfortunately, the talk and plans are yet to translate into effective action, even as major tourism developments take shape nearby. Indeed, the tourists who land at the new pier and venture beyond the compound won't have to go far to see the seedy side of the town. Just west of the facility, they will be assaulted by the first set of gritty buildings in rutted streets.

Not far on, too, they will notice the congestion in Water Street which, according to the plans, is to be transformed into a pedestrian mall, but on which no work has begun. Nor have we heard a timetable for any of this to start, and if it ever does, how it will be paid for, and by whom.

While Falmouth's beauty and rich history are worthy of being shared with visitors, its development and rehabilitation cannot be only for and in areas to be enjoyed by tourists. People live there all the time who will have their infrastructure affected by the hundreds of thousands of tourists who will pass through and spend time there.

Security issues, now a matter of concern in the town, will become greater when the port is opened. Recently, 50 additional police officers were assigned to Falmouth, but no one is clear how they will be facilitated. The existing police station is decrepit. A new one has been under construction, of sorts, for nearly a decade. If and when it will be completed, no one knows.

Tourism will attract people to work in the industry and people in search of opportunities. There is no sense that this is being planned.

The Urban Development Corporation is supposed to be coordinating Falmouth's rehabilitation. Perhaps they forgot they got the job, or think they are on a top-secret assignment.

The opinions on this page, except for the above, do not necessarily reflect the views of The Gleaner. To respond to a Gleaner editorial, email us: editor@gleanerjm.com or fax: 922-6223. Responses should be no longer than 400 words. Not all responses will be published.