Spanish Town eager for crime cure before grand park

Residents and business persons in Spanish Town have clamoured for increased investment in safety and security as well as greater infrastructural development before an Emancipation Park-style recreational space is established in the Old Capital.

Their comments come in the wake of advocacy by Prime Minister Andrew Holness of the virtues of large-scale green spaces in fostering harmonious relationships and improving mental and physical health.

In contrast to Holness’ optimistic view on parks, several residents believe that gun violence afflicting many of Spanish Town’s densely populated neighbourhoods would preventing them from taking leisurely strolls and having picnic time with their families.

One resident complained that the streets were so unsafe that it was a risk daily for individuals to conduct business on the roads.

“You have too much garrison area weh troubled by violence, so you can’t go deh and say you going to siddung with kids and enjoy yourself,” a woman, who requested anonymity, said. She could not suggest any suitable location for the siting of a park.

“I could never tell you ‘bout nowhere inna Spanish Town weh safe ... . A park right now is just a loitering [area] to harbour criminals, not for we who woulda wah make it comfortable for we siddung,” she added.

Another local bemoaned that he would not feel safe letting his children play outside.

“Mi nah go wah know say the community vile and then you see a man run come and we get caught up inna something because we inna one park. So, is more like we a walk through Spanish Town; people nuh siddung a Spanish Town,” a female resident chimed.

Holness said that his administration hopes to build at least one major park in each parish, citing Emancipation Park in New Kingston and the Harmony Beach Park in Montego Bay as signal ventures of how recreational life could be transformed in cities.

“When you go there, it is a collision of all classes and strata of society, but it is harmonious,” Holness said of Harmony Beach Park at a groundbreaking ceremony in Portmore last week.

“People respect the property, nobody throws anything on the ground, nobody fighting. People from all walks of life come there, thrown down their blankets, and they have picnic, and it is as if the park has transformed the human beings,” he said.

Spanish Town businesswoman Enid Wignal longs to see redevelopment on the scale of the seven-acre Emancipation Park in New Kingston.

She said the Old Capital was in need of a facelift but doubted whether it would thrive unless violent crime was reined in.

“Yah so a sudden-boom,” Wignal said, describing the unpredictability that hovers over the St Catherine capital. Peace might dominate the sprawling town at one moment and it might be overrun by gun-toting gangsters in the next, she said.

Michael Chang, a bar operator, says that Spanish Town needed a park decades ago and was the type of investment of which taxpayers would be proud.

But he cautioned that Spanish Town needs more than flowers, grass, and benches. Maintenance of key infrastructure, such as drainage and sewerage, is also viewed as important.

“We’re not happy. Look how much people unhappy. A nuh park alone we want. The dutty water weh lie down out o’ the square ... years it out deh,” he said, noting that the Government could do a better job of redeveloping the town.

Chang also wants an overhaul of the historic town, protesting that the red-brick walls in Emancipation Square were vestiges of a bygone era that harked back to slavery and colonialism. The town was made capital of Jamaica in 1534, under the Spanish, before ceding that title to Kingston in 1872.

“Every time you see the wall dem, a bare killing after killing. Give we some nice things so we freshen up we mind and make the youths born under some nice environment,” he added.

Dennis Robotham, president of the St Catherine Chamber of Commerce, said that many developments in the parish were slated to have green spaces but the necessary investments were not made.

“There is a lot of land space that the Government owns in St Catherine that can be used for much development in terms of green area and parks and development in that regard,” he said.

Robotham, as well as some residents, has suggested the open land along the Spanish Town Bypass would be a convenient location for a recreational park.

“I think, if it’s not just talk, the idea is a good one and I would support it,” Robotham said.

asha.wilks@gleanerjm.com