Time to tear down Tivoli Gardens and make that space a botanical garden

I am of the firm belief that the “mother” of all Garrison, will NEVER rise above what it is today and what I am about to suggest is not unprecedented but may be troubling to some, but hear me out.

There has been talk about Inner City renewal for years and while there appears to be wide-spread support for it, the fiscal space has never been there to support it. This makes what I am about to suggest a cause for concern amongst many people, anyway here goes.

I am of the firm believe that the wrecking ball needs to go into Tivoli Gardens and flatten every single home in that area and I mean level everything.

That area must then be made into a green space ,  with walking trail, a botanical garden, benches and shaded areas for persons to sit and relax during the course of the day and at evenings.

We can chose rename it the Kingston Park and Botanical Gardens, but certainly the name Tivoli Gardens needs to be expunged from the Jamaican landscape.

Included in this design should be a car park, which should be green in its design, ie it should not be an area that is asphalted or made solely of concrete, which only serves to create what is termed as heat island, that design however is for a secondary discussion.

The obvious question becomes, what do we do with the families that own homes and have made this area their residence for decades.One should refer to 5 post I made by typing ” What after Tivoli” in the search section of this blog for some additional background information.

TG for decades became a enclave where the the sense of entitlement for free house, free water, free light, free everything have become entrenched.  The people have becomes slaves to the politicians and then to the various dons that have ruled this area for decades and despite our best efforts, we will not change their mindset if they continue to co-mingle in the same space.

So what I am recommending is we physically separate these folks, we need to break the back of the entitlement culture that exist, starting with where I believe it all started ( I stand corrected here) or more pointedly where it has been epitomized over the years.

The Government of Jamaica ( I did not day the PNP Government 🙂 ) announced during the recent budget debate, that they will be embarking on a partnership between themselves via the NHT and Food for the Poor . Food for the Poor will build house and then sell these house to the NHT, who I believe will in turn offer them to qualified  low-income families.

Once we can keep this qualification process is beyond the reach of politicians  the NHT will be allowed to offer a set amount of these houses in the various communities to folks from Tivoli Gardens who owned their own homes in that community.

So NHT would have bought out the entire area now referred  to as TG and would partner with the private sector to raze the area and turn into a Park and botanical Gardens as I mentioned above. Companies in the business district could be offered tax breaks (as currently exit) to assist with the development and upkeep  of that area for a certain size monetary input.

These companies would be encouraged to “own” a piece of the park and would take on the responsibility along with the KSAC for its maintenance and upkeep, while paying salaries of those employed to keep the park in pristine condition.

The initial “purchase” would be paid to the NHT which, will be used to offset the cost of acquisition of these houses and basically they would offer these legal owners “new” house in the schemes being developed across the country.

For homes for which no clear ownership can be established the existing occupants, once they qualify will be offered some of the house across various schemes across the country. These house I would proposed will be owned by the NHT and rented to these folks. Using this method the NHT owns the physical asset and the occupant gets accommodation for a rental cost ie no free lunch.

The obvious question in his regard is if these people cannot afford to pay the rent, how on earth can this be a viable option for the NHT.

Well, while I have not figured it all the way through, I have an idea that could work. Given that NHT will own a set number of houses in these schemes, these folks (at least some) could be employed by the regional NHT office to provide services such as upkeep of those physical assets . This could include repairs and maintenance of the homes, cutting the grass, separating of  garbage etc etc.  Where they have zero skills, they would be sent to Heart to be trained. In this way the NHT would be able to maintain its assets in good shape and the folks would be able to pay their rent.

This is a very simplistic view, but I think you get the general picture.

Human rights group and  civil society  will ask the obvious questions?

1. Jay we have persons in that area that have real jobs, if you relocate them, what about their source of income?
2. There are folks here who  have kids going to school in and around the area, how do you suggest we address those issues given the shortage of places in schools across the country
3. These folks have been socialized in a particular way for decades , picking them up and relocating them to some other area will be traumatic, how would suggest we assimilate them into those communities.
4. What about the elderly folks who have lived there for decades, how do you suggest, we address their issues. Note that in these communities  the community members act as care givers for the old and physically impaired persons who have no families. Separating these folks have serious consequences for these folks, how will that issue be addressed.
5. They are people where who have no source of income, no skills, many children, how do you suggest we deal with these folks ?
6. And even more question than answer….

Got to run now but I will give these some more thought and do an update via a new post in the very near future.