Jamaica's Residential Districts Under Threat

Myopic leadership and self-serving populist pandering seem to be watchwords governing urban planning in Jamaica. This in the wake of comments attributed to Prime Minister Bruce Golding and Jamaica Institute of Architects President, Louise McLeod, at the International Symposium of Caribbean Modernist Architecture, held at the Jamaica Conference Centre in downtown Kingston on February 29,2008.

According to the Jamaica Observer online publication "Observations", Mr Golding asked, “How many people can we reasonably accommodate in the city of Kingston?” and then proceeded to opine that one family living on a three-quarter acre of land was a “luxury”, heralding yet another epiphany on his proverbial journey on the road to Damascus. “Are we going to have to opt for significant increases in our densities, in order to create some open space between these sites of high density living, creating the open space that will provide the lungs for the Corporate Area to breathe?” reportedly continues Golding. For her part, McLeod reportedly claims “I’m in agreement because Kingston has no green space for people to enjoy and meet. We need to change the pattern for development.” Both however failed to acknowledge the failure of the state, urban planners and architects to be guided by the various citizens groups and other bodies who have been pointing to their flawed urban planning strategies for decades. Further, no attempt was made to rationalize the notion of increasing densities and lowering setback ratios to 5-feet per floor to this new "concept" of increased open space.

However, it seems to have escaped the Prime Minister and the Jamaica Institute of Architects, that what has truly compounded the housing crisis in Jamaica is the failure of the state to stop the creeping commercialization into the residential communities, depleting the quantum of available housing stock, thereby creating an artificial but greater demand for housing and forcing prices upward. Indeed, the greatest irony in Jamaica today, is that the state is now being perceived as seeking to commercialize several residential communities while only paying lip service to the issues confronting the crime infested commercial districts. This leads to the obvious question of what are the strategies and effective timelines, which will see the rejuvenation of Downtown Kingston, previously recognized as the hub of commercial activity in the Corporate Area of Kingston and St Andrew?

To abuse the power of the State with ridiculously high density ratios and setback distances, that seek in effect, to force an aging population out of the comfort of their homes is unconscionable and indeed constitutes a breach of the citizens’ constitutional rights. To seek to increase densities, in urban communities without any corresponding plan to treat with the basic infrastructure, bespeaks a fundamental incomprehension of the issues which continue to undermine the sustainable development of Jamaica. What of the plans to create new towns along the corridor of Highway 2000, which was posited to address some of these issues that are being alluded to? Indeed as it was outlined at inception, persons would be able to live in these new developments and work in the Corporate Area if they so desired and commute quickly via the Highway. Wasn’t the Urban Development Corporation (UDC) part of that planning exercise, and if so what is this new remit all about? Further, what is the point of a plan to rehabilitate the rail system in Jamaica, if not to treat with some of the issues associated with urban concentration? Finally what of the citizens, do we have any say or did we abrogate our democratic rights to the State?

Jamaica is at a crossroads at this juncture in its development. As the State continues to facilitate creeping commercialization, thereby creating artificial demand and hence driving up housing prices and rentals, the issue remains which segment of the population is truly being targeted by this new strategy? Not the elderly, as the issue for those persons on a fixed income, whose homes are finally mortgage free is not to move into a high rise apartment complex and be paying monthly maintenance fees for the rest of their lives. Surely not the young graduates and regular Jamaican workers, whose inability to afford the astronomically high rents and associated mortgage payments in the Corporate Area are well known. For those who fall outside of those parameters the question remains where will this stop? Is it that we are so bereft of ideas that the only solution to Jamaica’s housing problems are to savage the city’s few remaining residential districts by transforming them into urban ghettos with poor supporting infrastructure? All this because of a paucity of political will to treat effectively with the lawless behaviour of a connected few and their penchant for creeping commercialization and the persistent use of a strategy of targeting the points of perceived least resistance.