Vision 2020? No, we are travelling backwards

THE EDITOR: I have a serious problem with the logic or lack thereof displayed by the past and present mayors of the southern city of San Fernando. The past mayor chopped off several feet of roadway along Harris Promenade which is one of the busiest thoroughfares in the city along which there are two of the churches with the largest congregations in the south as well as one or two schools, in order to expand a promenade on which considerable amount of money was spent and which is grossly unutilised except by a handful of vagrants. The result is major traffic congestion whenever there is a church service, funeral or wedding in progress or when parents stop to pick up school children which is every day. There is also a refurbished band stand that is never used opposite to the City Hall, except perhaps by vagrants during inclement weather or as a dormitory at night.

Now most of the area that was once a parking lot at the end of Harris Promenade near the hospital has been commandeered by the City Council and a gate with a lock installed at the entrance and since no parking is allowed on the Promenade which was chopped off, any one who has to go to the Police Station on legitimate business must either use the hospital car park where your car may very well be stolen or vandalised in a very short space of time. With many legal practitioners having offices on the other side of the Promenade, there is no parking space available. The large area in front of the CID office is filled with derelict vehicles and police personnel vehicles and even if there is a vacant space, citizens are not allowed to park there. All space directly in front of the station is reserved strictly for police vehicles and the few spaces on the opposite side of the street are filled with vehicles belonging to police personnel. Further down the Promenade the right side is reserved for the DPP and other court personnel and the left side is occupied mostly by wrecked vehicles that have been towed in by the wrecker.

Can you imagine for one moment the plight of an individual going to the police station to licence shotgun, having to park several blocks away and walking merrily along the streets quite possibly with criminals and muggers around, carrying a shotgun which must be unloaded and with the breach open according to the firearm laws of the country? When I tried to explain to the police officer that I would only be a minute, since I merely wanted to inquire from the Sergeant if my documents had arrived from Port-of-Spain, he instructed me to go around the block and park on the other side of Harris Promenade in the vicinity of the old fire station, where parking is now prohibited and the vultures in the ever vigilant wrecker would have quickly snatched my poor old car, seriously damaging it in the process free of liability and having to pay to retrieve what was left of it. Just imagine a person coming to the police station to report a murder or another serious crime in progress and being told, “Sorry you can’t park here.” One thing that I am absolutely certain about is that the status that we are hoping to achieve by the year 2020, given the rate that we are travelling backwards, will be still well beyond our reach by 2020 and beyond.

MARTIN KAVANAGH
La Romaine