arly in July, I saw a news story that a new flyover would be built over the Sandy Gully to connect traffic from Dunrobin Avenue to East Kings House Road, close to where I now live. And that took me into pondering the state of my hometown, Kingston. Here’s a link to the story on the flyover. Sandy Gully flyover
Some background for non-Jamaican readers:
1. Kingston is Jamaica’s capital city, built on the Liguanea Plain, named for the once common iguanas. The plain itself was laid down by the Hope River.
2. The Blue Mountains rise behind the city to a height of 7,403 feet (2,256 metres) – we all had to learn that figure in school and I have remembered it – first the lower foothills, and then the dark sweep of the higher peaks and ridges. South of the city lies the oval shape of Kingston Harbour, created by the Palisadoes tombolo. Mountains behind, sea in front.
3. Kingston is a major port, the centre of business and government, a cultural powerhouse, the largest English-speaking city in the Caribbean, with a population of between 500,000 to 680,000 (2022 census), depending on which borders are used.
4. It is a storied place, full of history, disaster, triumph and vibrancy located in a gorgeous natural setting.
Photo: Jeremy Francis, 2020
5. Today – and I am not going to qualify this rant with ‘in my opinion’ – it is a mess - dirty, chaka-chaka, degraded by visual blight, screaming billboards, uncollected garbage, lack of maintenance of the built environment, traffic gridlock, potholed and riven roads, poorly treated sewage, open burning, and dangerous and inefficient public transportation. There is no effort beyond urging and unmet commitments to look after heritage buildings. There is stark inequality everywhere you look, particularly in housing – the only way to deal with this emotionally is to cultivate a kind of oblivion, you know, the rolled-up tinted window of the private car owner. Green space is severely limited and mostly is only ‘green’ in theory with very few exceptions. Sidewalks are either absent, obstructed by utility poles, or collapsing. Due to rising temperatures but also the expansion of hard surfaces, the heat in Kingston is epic. Did I miss anything?
Not sure who took this picture - it appeared on my phone. I will give credit, if provided.
6. A few citizen led initiatives are doing yeoman work – I think of the murals in Water Lane in downtown Kingston led by Kingston Creative and the efforts of Citizens Rights to the City to try to influence a different path for the city, but mostly, Kingston is as I described it above.
Back to the gully flyover. What, I wondered, was the planning framework that had guided such major roadworks? Had the decision already been made, and given proximity to my own neighbourhood, was I merely to accept whatever happened over an unknown time period? What, more generally, is the overall plan for the city of Kingston? I tried to find out and here are the results:
1. The Spatial Plan for the entire island which was ‘well underway’ before I retired from the Jamaica Environment Trust at the end of 2017 has not been completed.
2. A Master Plan for Kingston, identified as necessary in various documents, has never been done.
3. The Kingston and St Andrew Development Order (KSADO) is considered the main planning framework for Kingston, and is also supposed to require? catalyze? facilitate? Local Area Plans which will supersede the requirements of the KSADO, but no funding or mechanism was ever put in place for this to occur.
4. The KSADO itself is online on the website of the National Environment and Planning Agency (NEPA) but it is impenetrable and unreadable. Since I am in rant mode, I assert almost no one knows what’s in it. I did come across one clause requiring signage not to cause ‘clutter, visual blight or distraction to drivers’ and this made me laugh out loud, because Kingston’s signage is the poster child for ‘clutter, visual blight and distraction to drivers.’ I have written about this before here Kingston & Advertising.
5. There has been no attempt to produce a Citizens’ Guide to the KSADO, which, when I asked whether this had been considered, was said to be a ‘good idea’. If this occurs at all, it will no doubt take ten years, at just about the same time the current version of the KSADO will be obsolete and up for revision.
6. The significant increase in building densities in the capital city had NO public consultation. The provisional KSADO did have consultation, but the densities in that document were increased in the confirmed KSADO with no further outreach to the public. I wish I could tell you the actual figures – but that would require weeks of work. You see it around the city, though, and if you live next to one of these high-rise sites, at best you might get a bedraggled notice on the gate before the zinc fence goes up.
7. In a presentation by the Government Town Planner to the Jamaica Developers Association in May 2024, the projected population growth in Kingston was said to be five to seven million people, with no time period mentioned. This is beyond laughable. Heights for buildings were described as ‘unlimited’ subject to the ‘comments of the Civil Aviation Authority.’
So as I’m assimilating all this, trying to tamp down anger and frustration, trying to figure out an argument, a course of action, a friend sends me a link to a press conference given by the Kingston and St Andrew Municipal Corporation (KSAMC), Kingston’s Local Planning Authority, patting itself on the back for ‘engaging’ with companies who did not have permits for their signage, and bringing the compliance rate from 9% to 53%. Illegal signage is not hard to uncover – it is literally on the side of the road, saying here I am! Come and fine me! The article went on to ‘commend’ the illegal actors and gave them a discount on fees! On Illegal Signs in Kgn (No wonder the traffic offenders wanted a discount for their fines – but that’s a different story for another time.)
According to a Google search, the KSAMC’s objective is ‘to be recognized as the leading innovative Local Authority in Jamaica, with professionalism, transparency and integrity as our hallmark.’ Hmm. To be ‘recognized as such’. Not to actually BE such.
This is already too long for me to get into solutions – maybe I will at another time – but for now I just want to say: HEY! To those of you in charge, the Prime Minister who is an overall Minister of Infrastructure Development, the environment and water minister, the local government minister, the roads and transport minister, NEPA, the KSAMC, the Urban Development Corporation, the National Works Agency, the National Solid Waste Management Authority, probably others I have forgotten, that’s a whole heap of personnel and funding deployed to deliver such a deeply sub-standard result for our capital city. And before I get attacked by the tribalists – most of what I have described above has existed for my entire life, sometimes slightly improved, rarely worse than today, but always there. And I’m not young!
P.S. The blooming trees and shrubs are still beautiful.
Diana what can I say except to sigh......Thanks for highlighting the reality of Kingston again. It really is chaka-chaka! The roads are a patchwork, the uncollected garbage is disgusting, worse when it becomes a habit to throw it in a gully, and also when you consider the big hullabaloo that went on with acquisition of new garbage trucks. The sad thing though, is that we can and could do better as a country, if the governance is better and more intentional, and geared to the betterment and wellbeing of all of us.
I always think of regular by the greats, when faced with problems in general and especially challenges in Jamaica.
The one that instantly came to mind reading your article was the Steppin' Razor's song..."The Poor Man Feel It". The lyrics: There's a solution, to all this pollution.
And then "Babylon, your kingdom is faaaaaalling."
I don't know. The money is there. It's the lack of transparency, accountability, moral compass...yes...talking to you Mr. Holness. But it's decades of this.
Diana what can I say except to sigh......Thanks for highlighting the reality of Kingston again. It really is chaka-chaka! The roads are a patchwork, the uncollected garbage is disgusting, worse when it becomes a habit to throw it in a gully, and also when you consider the big hullabaloo that went on with acquisition of new garbage trucks. The sad thing though, is that we can and could do better as a country, if the governance is better and more intentional, and geared to the betterment and wellbeing of all of us.
I always think of regular by the greats, when faced with problems in general and especially challenges in Jamaica.
The one that instantly came to mind reading your article was the Steppin' Razor's song..."The Poor Man Feel It". The lyrics: There's a solution, to all this pollution.
And then "Babylon, your kingdom is faaaaaalling."
I don't know. The money is there. It's the lack of transparency, accountability, moral compass...yes...talking to you Mr. Holness. But it's decades of this.
It's everywhere too. I live in foreign.
Wish I had an answer.