Commerce slows downtown as West Kingston tensions rise
Published:Sunday | May 23, 2010 | 12:00 AM
Dionne Rose, Business Reporter
The tensions and unrest in West Kingston are taking a toll on formal and informal commerce downtown, with one business already shuttering a branch operation in the thick of the city, and vendors and shoppers who normally travel into the capital for lucrative weekend haggling, playing it safe and staying away.
But the Jamaica Chamber of Commerce (JCC) says the fallout, up to early Friday, was not as bad as expected.
The Jamaica Public Service (JPS) Company has closed its East Parade branch temporarily, while other business operators tell Sunday Business that traffic has slowed and sales have plummeted since the unrest in West Kingston, where a warrant for the arrest of Christopher 'Dudus' Coke has been issued.
Coke, the reputed 'area don' for West Kingston, is wanted by the United States for drug-running and gun-smuggling.
Michael Ammar Sr, business operator of Ammar's department store, a branch of which is on King Street, says businesses have been negatively affected since rising tensions Monday when reports began to spread that the Bruce Golding administration was about to reverse positions and approve the extradition request.
march on Gordon House
"The traffic has reduced tremendously," he told Sunday Business. "For the first time, you can get a parking space; everything has been quiet."
Ammar said while he had not yet tabulated how it had affected his sales, he was sure there had been a fall-off.
"I have not yet looked at the figures because nothing much was happening. Usually, it is quite busy, but (on Thursday) much people were not coming downtown," he said Friday.
Milton Samuda, president of the Jamaica Chamber of Commerce, said his members had indicated that while they remained open for business, the situation remained uncertain.
"Up to late (Thursday), the impact has not been as great as feared; people are still trying to go about their business," he said.
"The merchants have indicated that it was tense downtown, but they were open for business," he said Friday. "A few of them closed a little early yesterday because there were concerns following the march," he said, referring to the descent, purportedly by Tivoli Gardens residents, on Gordon House, where lawmakers deliberate.
Regarding the commercial impact, Samuda said, "I would expect that once you have had a disruption in customer flow, that it must affect your sales."
Winsome Callum, head of corporate communications at the JPS, said the East Parade branch was closed on Thursday and will reopen for business on Tuesday.
no slowdown at Scotiabank
"The office was closed two hours early; there was little traffic and given the uncertainty, the branch was closed," she told Sunday Business.
She said the staff was now operating from the company's Ruthven Road offices. A notice was posted at the branch informing customers of the changes.
Meanwhile, Scotiabank, which has three branches at different points downtown, on King Street, the corner of Victoria Avenue and Blake Road and at its corporate headquarters, Scotia Centre, near the waterfront, said there had been no reduction in the volume of business, only "a change in the pattern of customers", according to Simone Hull, public relations specialist at Scotia Group Jamaica.
"More people are doing business earlier in the mornings," said Hull.
She, however, noted that back-office operations had been affected, as staff who usually stay back to do work after closing hours, was leaving work earlier.
How the situation in West Kingston will play out is still uncertain.
The arrest warrant is yet to be served on Coke, and the police have warned the public that Tivoli Gardens appears to be gearing up for a siege.
The police on Friday appealed to the lawyers retained by Coke to take their client to the nearest police station so that the extradition warrant could be executed. They also urged West Kingston residents to remove the barricades erected since Monday to allow entry to the area.