"Papine is a good example. You can shop there and kids can go to school there. But a lot of Kingston is not like that, so basically you have to get into your car to do everything," That’s the sentiment attributable Dr Norman Garrick, Associate Professor of Civil Engineering at the University of Connecticut as reported by the Daily Gleaner. Speaking at a recent seminar on the development and approval processes hosted by Jamaica Chamber of Commerce, Garrick reportedly advises that Kingston's traffic woes stem from poor development strategies that have failed to integrate commerce and residential activity, resulting in long travel hours from home to work.
However, the accuracy of those sentiments is questionable. This as most residential communities, in the city of Kingston at least up to the mid-1990’s were planned in relatively close proximity to commercial centres. The most obvious examples in St Andrew being Mona Heights, Hope Pastures, Harbour View, Seymour Lands, Trafalgar Park and the residential sections of New Kingston. In all cases cited above, major shopping centres were no more than five (5) minutes away and persons would walk to them. However, over time, particularly with State altered traffic flows and a substantial increase in criminal activity, persons are more reluctant to walk to the nearest shopping community. Further in its tacit acceptance of creeping commercialization, coupled with its attempts to introduce mixed land use planning, the Government of Jamaica has only succeeded in transforming formerly residential neighbourhoods into a “hodgepodge” of commercial activity, thereby forcing the relocation of the previous residents into other residential communities further away from the commercial centres. The matter is compounded further, as the increasing densities in some residential districts, create additional demand for educational institutions and hospitals among other services, but the over-concentration which obtains in the residential communities now, renders that physically impossible, as there is literally no room for these developments and hence persons need to commute for longer periods to access even those services.
However, Garrick reportedly is critical that Jamaica has been following the pattern of development of the US where commercial and residential land usage is separated. This is in stark contrast to what local architects and urban planners have been advising as they seek to promote mixed land use developments in Jamaica. In fact these local experts continue to cite Manhattan in New York as the benchmark for Jamaica’s future development, with a population density of 76,940 persons per square mile (Kingston’s current density is 3,727 persons per square mile), though the trends in the developed countries are clear, that the shift is away from these mixed use strategies.
Jamaica’s development must be founded on a factual basis and therefore the refusal of the planners, architects and politicians, to acknowledge that perhaps as much as 20 percent of the capital city has been abandoned because of criminal activity and is in dire need of redevelopment, means that the process will continue to be mired in controversy. The answer cannot reasonably be found by increasing the density in the residential areas by a factor of 25 because there is a paucity of political and social will to confront the real issues which obtain in the commercial zone of Downtown Kingston and leaves it grossly underutilized.
However, the accuracy of those sentiments is questionable. This as most residential communities, in the city of Kingston at least up to the mid-1990’s were planned in relatively close proximity to commercial centres. The most obvious examples in St Andrew being Mona Heights, Hope Pastures, Harbour View, Seymour Lands, Trafalgar Park and the residential sections of New Kingston. In all cases cited above, major shopping centres were no more than five (5) minutes away and persons would walk to them. However, over time, particularly with State altered traffic flows and a substantial increase in criminal activity, persons are more reluctant to walk to the nearest shopping community. Further in its tacit acceptance of creeping commercialization, coupled with its attempts to introduce mixed land use planning, the Government of Jamaica has only succeeded in transforming formerly residential neighbourhoods into a “hodgepodge” of commercial activity, thereby forcing the relocation of the previous residents into other residential communities further away from the commercial centres. The matter is compounded further, as the increasing densities in some residential districts, create additional demand for educational institutions and hospitals among other services, but the over-concentration which obtains in the residential communities now, renders that physically impossible, as there is literally no room for these developments and hence persons need to commute for longer periods to access even those services.
However, Garrick reportedly is critical that Jamaica has been following the pattern of development of the US where commercial and residential land usage is separated. This is in stark contrast to what local architects and urban planners have been advising as they seek to promote mixed land use developments in Jamaica. In fact these local experts continue to cite Manhattan in New York as the benchmark for Jamaica’s future development, with a population density of 76,940 persons per square mile (Kingston’s current density is 3,727 persons per square mile), though the trends in the developed countries are clear, that the shift is away from these mixed use strategies.
Jamaica’s development must be founded on a factual basis and therefore the refusal of the planners, architects and politicians, to acknowledge that perhaps as much as 20 percent of the capital city has been abandoned because of criminal activity and is in dire need of redevelopment, means that the process will continue to be mired in controversy. The answer cannot reasonably be found by increasing the density in the residential areas by a factor of 25 because there is a paucity of political and social will to confront the real issues which obtain in the commercial zone of Downtown Kingston and leaves it grossly underutilized.
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