Lee's lessons for the handcart crowd

One of his eulogists recalled with humour George Lee's battles with mosquitoes - attempting to rid Portmore of them.

But that was a small metaphor for a much larger idea - the late mayor's full engagement with the municipality, which he fought to be recognised, of which, at the time of his death, he was serving his second stint as leader.

George Lee, indeed, talked big about what he wanted to do for the municipality. He understood the importance of articulating the ideas and selling a vision.

And he did more. He worked hard at making them real, even when the progress was slow. Mr Lee wanted a hospital, libraries, industries, and so on. He attempted to twin Portmore with other cities and went after investment.

The late George Lee should have relevance to the Kingston and St Andrew Corporation (KSAC), the local government authority whose leader is Angela Brown Burke. The KSAC's new big idea is the registration of handcart operators in downtown Kingston.

Our sense of the KSAC, its leadership and its councillors is that they have arrived at an evolutionary cul-de-sac of ideas and geography.

Kingston and St Andrew, for the mayor, it seems, means downtown. And the corporation's big idea is handcarts. About everything else, the KSAC's chairman is apparently lost.

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