Land Lease serves notice against ‘negative stigma’ over Andem

Residents of the once volatile community of Land Lease in Eastern St Andrew are tired of the negative stigma that hounds them like an albatross around their necks and have been making moves to shake it off by uplifting themselves.

The community is situated along the northern boundary of the Hope Botanical Gardens and is bordered by the Gordon Town Road. It has earned a reputation as a violent enclave because it was once the stamping ground of the feared Gideon Warriors gang, headed by notorious, most wanted fugitive Joel Andem until his dramatic capture 15 years ago.

While Andem headed the nation’s most wanted list between 2000 and 2004, before he was held by police at Clarksonville in St Ann, Land Lease was widely seen as a no-go zone for law-abiding citizens, and the security forces carried several raids there in an effort to nab the man who had managed to elude them on so many occasions.

But, in recent years, the residents of that infamous community have been working towards a new dawn.

Gleason Asquith operates a welding shop and also plants crops and rears livestock.

“That done long time. We have moved on and have rebuilt our community as the majority of people in Land Lease are decent citizens. Land Lease is a farming community and we have little or no crime here for the longest time,” Asquith told The Sunday Gleaner.

Asquith pointed to the fact that students from the nearby University of Technology (UTech) are boarders in houses owned by residents and travel freely throughout the community.

He pointed to concrete houses a few feet away from where his welding shop was located to prove his point. As he spoke, a female student was seen walking into the community and entering one of the houses.

COMMUNITY PROJECTS

Asquith said various community projects, including a citizens’ association, were set up as a method of getting the residents to realise that they had to uplift themselves from their condition of poverty and embrace positive morals.

“The majority of the people here are farmers,” he said.

Land Lease is, in every sense of the word, an impoverished community. On leaving Old Hope Road and turning left on a road that runs beside the Hope Botanical Gardens, the roads are newly paved. Upon taking a right turn on a stretch of roadway where the Papine High School is located, a concrete mural reading ‘Welcome to Land Lease’ signals the entrance to the community.

The paving extends about 20 feet past the sign. The rest of the journey into Land Lease must be done over a single-lane dirt road filled with bumps and potholes. The community does have running water and electricity, but, according to one of the communities better-known citizens, Tamika Lindsay, not much more is on offer.

“The youths need an opportunity. We are trying to rebuild our home. Everyone is trying to build somewhere to rent to students. If we were such a bad place then, you see how many students live around here and nobody rob or abuse them? It can’t be because of one man and some things that happen how long ago that we must be looked down upon forever. Things turn around long time but the youths need opportunities,” Lindsay said.

Lindsay, the mother of Andem’s child, says communities like Land Lease have a great role to play in the transformation of Jamaica if they are given more attention and assistance.

“We are people here with ambition. Everybody a try live up now, everybody a try build a room. The community nice. No gun violence. We are tired of the negative stigma. We are shaking off that, we have passed the worst. We want when people hear about Land Lease they feel free to come and have a drink and feel free to mingle. But we want jobs fi di youth them,” she said.

karyl.walker@gleanerjm.com