EDITORIAL - Where is McKenzie's plan for the city?

Mr Desmond McKenzie is quite a fellow. He is chairman of the Kingston and St Andrew Corporation (KSAC), the local government authority for the Jamaican capital and its suburban regions, but is more commonly referred to by his other title, the Mayor of Kingston.

Mr McKenzie has held these jobs for the better part of a decade. For far longer than that he has represented the Tivoli Gardens division at the KSAC, representing the Jamaica Labour Party (JLP), of which he is a senior member. He also sits in the Jamaican Senate as a JLP member.

But Mr McKenzie is not a politician, judging by how he refers to that species of Jamaicans and their failings - especially with regard to construction in the city. An estimated seven out of 10 buildings in Kingston and St Andrew are put up without the appropriate engineering and/or zoning permits.

According to Mr McKenzie, this is the fault of permissive politicians.

"They felt if they had taken a position (against unregulated construction) it would have hurt them politically," Mr McKenzie said in a speech this week. "So they closed their eyes to many of the activities taking place."

Removing himself from blame

Noticeably, Mr McKenzie, whose KSAC administration has recently awakened to one of its occasional bursts against illegal construction, spoke in the third person, in a way that removes himself from blame. He has also constructed timelines for past errors with the seeming intent of absolving his party's administration of culpability. To a degree, Mr McKenzie has a point. He inherited an administration from the late Marie Atkins that may have been even more organisationally bankrupt and intellectually comatose than his own.

But Mr McKenzie has been head of the KSAC for nearly 10 years, during which time the Jamaican capital had been even more shambolic and unruly than before. What, however, is worse than Mr McKenzie's "it is not me, blame the politicians" defence of Kingston's ramshackle is that he seems to have no plans or ideas for the city. Or, if he has one, neither the mayor nor anyone in his administration has spoken with any coherence about it.

Major problems

For instance, among the major problems facing the KSAC is the creation of jobs, which requires investment. But it seems not to be an issue that has taxed the minds of those who run the KSAC.

There is nothing emerging from the corporation to suggest that Kingston is open for business - no conferences, seminars and familiarisation trips to sell the city, or policy initiatives to underpin any such effort.

The shame is that Mr McKenzie need not reinvent the wheel. He can look at what other cities have done to promote economic regeneration and adapt appropriate portions of their models.

Additionally, Mr McKenzie can ask Dr Gladstone Hutchinson, the director general of the Planning Institute of Jamaica, for the copy of his first public speech in that job to the Private Sector Organisation of Jamaica, which contained several ideas worthy of consideration. If the KSAC's ideas collide with areas of central government responsibility, we expect Mr McKenzie would articulate proposals to resolve these conflicts.

Thinking, of course, is hard work, which is what we expect Mayor McKenzie to be doing to resuscitate his city.

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