Federation Park will never be the same again

Again, I see the Government of TT making unilateral decisions that affect the lives of so many people without any forethought or proper planning. It seems that they wake up one morning and just decide to announce these "grand" plans without consultation, without input from anyone, especially from the people who would be affected the most by their decisions. Is this a democratic government or a bunch of mini-dictators or kings "masquerading" as elected leaders?

In this case, it is the residents of Federation Park, many of whom have lived there for ten years or more, who are in their bull’s eye. The traffic nightmares to these once quiet neighbourhoods and the potential for crime and other ills of society reaching into this neighbourhood are real.

Does the Government really care about how these proposed townhouses will affect the ambience and esthetics of the neighbourhood? Have they done any "studies" on the affects their actions would have on people who already live there? Are they trying to make all of TT "one gigantic slum" with their "social engineering" of communities?

I don’t get it! Instead of trying to make more communities and neighbourhoods like Federation Park by improving roads and other infrastructures and fighting the crime scourge, they are attempting to bring Federation Park down to the level of other parts of the country. How crazy is that? I think they have this 20/20 vision thing backwards — instead of "lifting the boat," they are trying to "drown" everyone on board with their arrogance and incompetence!

First off, I think the Government should get out of the "housing business."

They should and can ensure that people have a decent and safe place to live by supporting the construction of low-income housing for the down-trodden by private enterprise. They can make the same state lands available for developers and investors to build houses, condos, townhouses and apartments for sale or rent as the "market" will bear.

They can help them by helping them secure low-interest home loans and give incentives to the banks and others to invest in the housing market through tax credits. But as far as government (any government) building and managing housing, through NHA or whatever other name they want to call the agency, they should not do it. They ought to divest themselves of that role.

I believe that they only do this to "buy" the loyalty of people who are fortunate enough to get one of the "few" houses/apartments that they build. It is a sort of political patronage to "secure and control" peoples’ party loyalty and vote in the next election.

There should also be an educational component to this to inform people about reproductive "choices" and to discourage them from having more children than they can economically and emotionally afford. TT is a small island and there is only "so much useable land" for housing.

Therefore, if the population keeps growing at the rate it presently is, there will indeed be more serious housing shortages down the road. So, people have to do their part in controlling the country’s population growth, to avoid that from happening. The responsibility for that lies with each and every citizen, not just the government.

This is not to support abortion or people watching TV instead of having sex, but a call for the population to practice safe and age appropriate sexual conduct to avoid a population explosion that the country cannot afford to feed or house.

I believe this is the message the Government should be sending to the citizenry, instead of promising to indiscriminately build "new housing" all over the place for "everyone," that is unless one of these new housing developments is being built next to where one of these ministers or the Prime Minister lives, then I say, go for it! They will then "get real up close and personal" with the people they serve, finally!

KELVIN C JAMES Sr

Via E-mail