EDITORIAL - Downtown showed its promise

Most days, the central business district of downtown Kingston is a cacophonous hive of jostling humanity engaging in a dizzying swirl of commerce. But by sunset, haggling vendors and shoppers are gone, the reinforced shutters of its stores are pulled tight, and the area's streets are mostly deserted.

The atmosphere, in a way, exaggerates the scars of downtown's too many abandoned buildings, its grit the fear that the old section of our capital tends to engender.

It was not that way last Wednesday. Long after sunset, well into the night, the crowds were still there. And with them came the reinforcement of the idea of what downtown Kingston can again become.

Wednesday's multitude was, by and large, chasing bargains - price discounts offered by the district's merchants as part of a programme led by the Chamber of Commerce, the municipal government, and this newspaper. The shopping was accompanied by entertainment, helping to transform the event into a grand carnival.

We can't have carnivals downtown every day. But as this newspaper has long been insisting, which Prime Minister Bruce Golding appears to have embraced, we can again make downtown a place where people want to go, and can be. At any time!

In this regard, Mr Golding has promoted two initiatives, including one for which we campaigned, that have the approval of this newspaper. There is a ban, not as rigorously enforced as we had hoped, on government agencies and departments leaving downtown for the New Kingston area in a trek that started nearly 40 years ago. There is, too, the enhancement of tax incentives for real-estate refurbishment and development in that part of the city.

Digicel's decision

Indeed, we are heartened by the decision of Digicel, the telecoms firm, to build its headquarters downtown, as well as its substantial financial support for the refurbishing of the socially and commercially significant Coronation Market. Digicel is a likely fillip to others to move downtown.

Another significant proposal is Mr Golding's plan for a new foreign ministry, built with Chinese money, as part of a hoped-for diplomatic district. We suggest, however, that the administration proceed with caution.

Mr Golding ought to be careful of becoming fixated on costly shiny new objects when the same money may be able to do much more in refurbishment. There are a couple of ideas, therefore, that the administration might wish to pursue.

First, the Government, through the Urban Development Corporation and the Postal Corporation, owns tens of thousands of square feet of empty or undertilised space. This can be refurbished as offices, and government agencies that now rent expensively elsewhere sent to occupy them.

The administration needs to ensure the passage of legislation through which it can effectively demand that the owners of abandoned/derelict buildings refurbish them or face their forfeiture. This might be a better way to spend the Chinese money.

Braced with the same legislation, the Government might also mobilise the National Housing Trust and the Housing Agency of Jamaica to redevelop the blighted communities adjacent to the downtown business district.

Mr Golding could well find that this is a more fruitful and sustainable beginning to revitalising the city instead of moving the Jamaica Defence Force out of Up Park Camp to use the lands for green-field projects.

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