Prime Minister Perry Christie is breathing a sigh of relief as plans for the redevelopment of the Cable Beach strip seem to be moving forward, possibly providing him with one of the first accomplishments of his almost three years in office.
Others, including the area’s residents and property owners aren’t as relieved.
The poorly thought-out plan, put together by people who do not live, work or use the Cable Beach strip, calls for an overly-ambitious redevelopment of the area, including foolishly relocating Bay Street considerably further south of it’s present location.
It also calls for a relocation of the Straw Market to West Bay Street, moving it impossibly far from the cruise ship docks that support the vendors.
Todd Hill, a planner from Atlanta, is vice-president of EDWA, the company that has produced the ridiculous plan. ﾠMr. Hill, likely, has little personal knowledge of the use of the Cable Beach strip, nor any concern for what effects his plan would have on residents of West Bay Street. Locals will be inconvenienced first by the massive construction, and then again by the additional traffic and commotion of the development, and finally by having to go miles out of their way to get from the Eastern end of the island to the Western end.
The outrageous plan would also make it nearly impossible for Bahamians to access the popular Cable Beach, as all beach front property would be owned by hotels or landowners adverse to the local population.
Further, the infrastructure for that area, in fact for all of Nassau, is unable to sustain the additional demands that a billion dollar development would call for.
Desperate to create jobs and make it appear as if he is capable of actually accomplishing something, the Prime Minister is, once again, being led down a thorny path by international “consultants” and ambitious developers.
The development project is being pushed by a consortium headed by Dikran Izmirlian, a Lyford Cay billionaire whose use of Bay Street may include little more than sending his maid to the Lyford Cay City market to pick up steaks.
Instead of a straight shot down Bay Street, residents and tourists would now be diverted to an area near Gladstone Road and JFK Drive, an outrageous detour than would not affect Mr. Izmirlian or Mr. Hill.
In a glaring disregard for Bahamian residents, Mr. Izmirlian’s Baha Mar consortium has held meetings with financial institutions who will be relocated due to the proposed development. ﾠThey have had no such meetings with the property owners and residents who will be most affected, the very people who Mr. Christie has been elected to represent.
EDWA is the company behind the no-go plans for Clifton Heritage Park and the questionable plan to have Nassau’s downtown area redesigned by students during a two-week workshop. ﾠBy throwing in some Junkanoo and “Bahamian culture” the company is able to lure the Prime Minister and overly-nationalistic Bahamians into accepting their ridiculous proposals.
Let’s hope the Prime Minister comes to his senses and realises that there are better ways to jumpstart the Bahamian economy than by allowing developers, with dollar signs in their eyes, to run amok with our national development.
