In an interview with the Bahama Journal Sunday, Norman Solomon, who chairs the Board, said that over the next few weeks, the group of downtown businesspersons will replace 50 trash bins and install new benches.
“We will be looking at providing bathroom facilities for tourists,” Mr. Solomon said. “This is very important. We need these facilities.”
The other area of concern for the NTDB and indeed many Bahamians is the current decline of the eastern portion of Bay Street – between East Street and Christie Avenue, in particular.
Several suggestions have been made, but apart from sporadic attempts at cleaning, Bay Street appears moribund rather than vibrant while the current administration commissions yet another study.
Mr. Solomon said the redevelopment of Bay Street seems to be “mostly talk at this time.”
He pointed out that the retail sector of the economy is reserved exclusively for Bahamians and that the government should provide incentives for Bahamian businesspeople who want to open a business in that area of Bay Street.
“It costs a lot of money and you are asking business people to go into a depressed area and open a business,” Mr. Solomon said. “You have to give them some kind of incentive.”
The last administration and the NTDB secured the services of the architect Jackson Burnside to conduct a study of Historic Nassau.
The purpose of that study, completed in 1998, was to establish guidelines to protect and conserve the historic character of the “old city”.
Mr. Burnside explained on Sunday that, “The idea was not to have all the buildings looking alike, but to help current and future owners of buildings in the City of Nassau to understand the character of the buildings and the city and how you preserve that quality that makes visitors say ‘wow!’ when they see the city.”
Many people over the years – businesspersons and others – have called on the government to lead in the upgrade of the main strip.
Minister of Trade and Industry Leslie Miller has referred to the current committee co-chaired by George Mackey, which is developing a plan for Bay Street.
Mr. Burnside said the Historic Nassau study made some “simple recommendations” that would see the whole area improve, but systemic and historic challenges make it almost impossible for such plans to be implemented.
“We suggested the traffic flow be better organized, that the streets be kept clean, that there be festival activities and a management organization to ensure that the city is properly managed,” Mr. Burnside said.
In fact, it is the need for a properly organized managing entity that seems the most necessary recommendation if Bay Street and indeed the city are to enjoy sustained growth and development.
Mr. Burnside said that the studies are forward-looking and call for long-term commitment, while the persons responsible for charting economic growth and development have a much smaller window of opportunity.
“The plans are visionary and call for 20-year commitments, but our political system operates on a five-year cycle,” Mr. Burnside said. “The demands on politicians time are not only great, but he or she has very limited resources with which to meet those demands.”
As an example, he drew attention to the present set of problems facing the government. Problems, he said, should be addressed, not by the national government, but by some form of local governing body.
“They have to worry about the labour situation; they can’t get young men to behave when they are down on Bay Street; they still haven’t been able to clean the streets the way they should; the Junkanoo scores are still not available. With problems like these it’s difficult to expect politicians to turn their attention to long-range problems,” Mr. Burnside said.
The significant problems facing New Providence – traffic congestion, decline of portions of Bay Street and crime, industrial relations – have taken on national proportions because the top politicians are in part, addressing them.
However, these are not national problems, in the geographic sense, affecting the lives of people throughout the archipelago, Mr. Burnside believes.
“Local government should have first been established in New Providence before being taken to the Family Islands,” Mr. Burnside said. “As it is now it is very difficult to get any of these development plans implemented. You have an outdated colonial management system, a system that not even the English use, in which requests and orders flow vertically from top to bottom and take a long time before anything can get done.”
Mr. Burnside said a mayor, cacique, or ombudsman, someone who would have responsibility for implementing these plans, should govern Nassau.
Similarly, he believes the various constituencies should have their own councils and meeting places where the people should have the opportunity to get to know each other and try to find solutions to the problems they face in their communities.
The suggestion has the support of the latest research in the United States on how communities function effectively and reduce crime.
“…Local governments should support the development of cooperative efforts in low-income neighborhoods by encouraging neighbours to meet and work together,” said the study, conducted by Dr. Felton Earls, professor of human behaviour and development at Harvard School of Public Health.
His observation was made in a New York Times article on Tuesday, January 6, which referred to the findings from research on crime prevention in Chicago neighbourhoods, as “the most important research insight in the last decade”.
Dr. Earls said that cities that sow community gardens might reap a harvest of not only kale and tomatoes, but also safer neighbourhoods and healthier children. Taking action and making an effort; being willing to act, when needed, for one another’s benefit and particularly for one another’s children are what bring about positive change in communities, he noted.
By C.E. Huggins, The Bahama Journal
