Editorial | The tyranny of fêtes

The Gleaner shares the observations of letter writer Monique Grant in this newspaper on Wednesday.

Public entertainment events in Jamaica, she concluded, do not have to result in traffic gridlocks, or the residents of nearby neighbourhoods being subjected to the tyranny of entertainers and party-goers who assault their night-time peace with overload music and, sometimes, blaring profanities.

While there may be a deficit of special-purpose entertainment venues to meet all that’s needed for hosting large events, organisers can, in the meantime, do far better in respecting the rights of residents while serving the interests of their patrons. That requires doing two important things: undertaking serious logistical planning and robustly enforcing laws, especially around night noises and traffic management.

The writer, who signed as an urban planning and lecturer, was driven to her comments by Monday’s huge traffic gridlock on the North Coast Highway in St Ann, particularly in the area of Richmond, after a weekend of nearby fêtes, dubbed ‘Best Weekend Ever’.

She wrote: “... Residents of Richmond Estate were subjected to fireworks at 2:43 a.m. that literally shook elderly residents, children and the sick out of their bed.

“This followed nights of unfiltered, profane music and DJs screaming into microphones until dawn – a pattern that has unfortunately become typical of Jamaica’s events.

“More concerning is the complete lack of traffic and parking planning. On Sunday, August 3, what should have been a one-hour journey to Montego Bay took three hours, due to event-related congestion.”

REPLAY BUTTON

We wish we could have claimed that the situation described by reader Grant was an aberration, a one-off misadventure that is unlikely to recur. The truth is, however, it was like some had hit a replay button. The circumstance is repeated often on the same stretch of the North Coast Highway, and elsewhere in the parish of St Ann, on the island’s north shore, whose sprawling, open fields near to the sea have become popular venues for entertainment events, especially at holiday time.

There was much hand-wringing, for instance, over gridlocks on the same stretch of highway, months apart, in 2022, as motorists tried to get to, and from, entertainment events. Further up the road, in the resort town of Ocho Rios, the parish government, in April of that year, suspended events at the town’s Pearly Beach because of the serious gridlocks an earlier one had caused.

The situation has repeated itself up and down the north coast, as well as in the capital, such as on New Year’s Eve/New Year’s Day 2017/18 when motorists attending a popular fête blocked the Palisadoes Road, the only land route into Kingston’s Norman Manley International Airport. Several travellers abandoned their vehicles, walking the final several kilometres to the airport. Some flights were delayed.

There are long-standing plans to establish supposedly out-of-the-way outdoor entertainment/party venues to deal with the complaints of noise disturbances to communities.

Which, of course, won’t completely address the issue of traffic, or even noise. One of those is planned for close to Port Royal, a community at the end of the strip, near to the airport, of which the Palisadoes is a part. It is not inconceivable that a 2018 New Year’s Day-type situation could, if there is inadequate parking, repeat itself. With respect to the Richmond/Priory/Drax Hall area of the north coast that is prone to gridlocks and snags, the government hopes to get around the problem with a by-pass extension to the North-South Highway between the capital and Mammee Bay/Ocho Rios.

Perhaps, between the new highway segment and the broadening of the existing roads, the problem will be solved. We doubt it – at least it might completely. In any event, this will take time.

GOOD PLANNING

The Gleaner agrees with writer Grant that, in situations where there are competing interests and limited options, good planning offers the best outcomes.

“Municipal corporations should require comprehensive traffic and urban planning assessments before issuing (events) permits,” she wrote.

“If promoters know expected attendance, they can work with the police to estimate vehicle numbers and implement solutions like designated parking at football fields, with shuttle services to venues.”

That’s logistics planning, which provides the authorities with the basis to enforce rules. The same applies to the old people, children and the ill at places like Richmond, who can’t sleep because of the all-night music played at high decibels. It goes also, for old and young, who value their rest and who don’t want to hear the profanities from which reader Grant’s mother couldn’t escape.

Jamaica has a Noise Abatement Act which sets limits on the distance at which amplified sounds should be able to be heard, and the times and days of the week varying decibels of sounds are allowed. That law is enforced mostly in the breach.

A large part of the cause of Jamaica’s social dysfunction, this newspaper consistently argues, is the country’s failure to do the little things consistently and getting them right – like cleaning drains and maintaining public order, including enforcing the law on noise at night. We should start now.