DOMA fears Govt wants to abandon downtown

Government’s failure to effect law and order in downtown Port-of-Spain and address the concerns of downtown business owners “must be intentional” and may suggest that Government has plans of relocating commercial shopping from the city to the waterfront development project. This was the view expressed by members of the Downtown Owners and Merchants Association (DOMA) during a two-hour meeting at the Crowne Plaza Hotel yesterday. The meeting was initially scheduled for Monday but had to be postponed as a result of the Port-of-Spain bombing. The meeting’s objective, according to DOMA President, Gregory Aboud, was “to respond to the fact that the authorities are not listening to the concerns of downtown, and to come up with a mechanism to try and attract attention to the difficulties being experienced.”

He said the view expressed by some 180 business owners at the meeting was that the neglect of downtown Port-of-Spain may be intentional and that Government may have plans of abandoning the commercial shopping centre in east and central Port-of-Spain and moving it to west Port-of-Spain. He said that DOMA’s board was yet to explore that proposition put forth by its members. “The general feeling is that talking with the Government and being reasonable in our dialogue has not worked... As a result, we have decided to form a sub-committee which will comprise members of DOMA to come up with this strategy of communication,” Aboud said. He said further, that the plight of Port-of-Spain and the security of Trinidad and Tobago have become more desperate by Monday’s bombing. He added: “The bombing was simply a progression of lawlessness. If it doesn’t stop, the meeting felt that we could expect more serious actions to follow.”