EDITORIAL - Mr Henry musthold his ground

IT HAS operated, so far, for only two days. The jury, therefore, is still out on the efficacy of the new transportation management arrangements in downtown Kingston.

Yet, this is an issue on which we are, except in one respect, sympathetic with Transport Minister Mike Henry.

If, in time, it is shown that there are imperfections or fundamental flaws in the arrangement, Mr Henry and his technocrats will be obligated to fix the problems or abandon the system altogether. But we should not be forced to those positions because of sabotage by unruly private bus and taxi operators.

Indeed, we see in this initiative - planning for which long preceded Mr Henry's tenure (the Water Lane bus terminus was supposed to have opened before the 2007 Cricket World Cup) - a small part of a larger project to rescue downtown from grit and disorder and a 40-year stranglehold by the unlawful.

Up to the late 1960s, downtown Kingston, with its Georgian buildings and broad piazzas, was the centre of commerce of the capital.

Since then, the well-to-do residents have left. Commercial operations followed to the newly developed commercial areas along Constant Spring Road and New Kingston. Government offices joined the trek.

urban blight

The upshot: the abandonment of large swathes of what, in most other countries, would be their most prized real estate - land and property adjacent to the waterfront. In our case, that waterfront happens to be the world's seventh largest natural harbour.

As is usually the case, urban blight set in. And despite sporadic, piecemeal and unsustained attempts at renewal, the criminals and shakedown artists took over. Vibrantly chaotic by day, downtown, understandably, becomes frighteningly quiet at dusk.

Nowhere was the daily disorder more apparent than in the area around St William Grant Park called Parade.

Vendors spilled from sidewalks into the streets. Buses and taxis whose routes terminated in the area jostled for space and passengers. Touts did thriving business. Extortionists held sway. The police mostly looked on.

An opportunity for the reordering of downtown fortuitously opened last May when the security forces went into Tivoli Gardens, in what developed into a pitched battle, searching for the alleged drug kingpin Christopher Coke. That event helped to loosen the grip of criminal enforcers on the downtown business district, particularly the market region.

serious possibility of renewal

Indeed, there is an emerging semblance of law and order downtown. And with that has come the possibility of renewal, exemplified by the renovation of Coronation Market and the decision by telecoms company Digicel to build its headquarters downtown.

This sense of order has been enhanced this week by the ability of traffic to move with relative ease around Parade now that public transportation vehicles are being forced to park at the new terminus. There are free shuttles from Parade to the new park.

The Government should not, on this matter, give into the vulgarians. Our society cannot be built on disorder.

We, nonetheless, have a significant concern: the decision to give the management of the centre to the city's local government, the Kingston and St Andrew Corporation. This organisation is exemplary for incompetence. It is likely to run the centre into failure.

Mr Henry would have better served Jamaica by putting management of the transport hub to public tender.

The opinions on this page, except for the above, do not necessarily reflect the views of The Gleaner. To respond to a Gleaner editorial, email us: editor@gleanerjm.com or fax: 922-6223. Responses should be no longer than 400 words. Not all responses will be published.