• Category

  • Content Type

Advertisement

Kingstonians Urged to Work Together to Transform City

March 11, 2010

The Full Story

Speaker of the House of Representatives, Hon. Delroy Chuck, has called on residents of Kingston to unite to transform and rehabilitate the city of Kingston into the place of choice for visitors to the Caribbean.
Mr. Chuck said he was very displeased at the state that the city has fallen into and believed Jamaicans needed to work together to restore the area to a place where every citizen can be proud to call home.
“In our own small way we can start right now,” he told residents attending the final leg of the series of Visioning Symposia on local governance held today (March 11) at the Jamaica Conference Centre.
“In each of our communities, what are we doing to clean and beautify our surroundings?” he asked. “I challenge each of you today as you look generally at your community and the parish of Kingston and Jamaica, ask yourself “what can I do from today to make my street, my community better?”
He further challenged the residents to “think creatively, to think big and to see things as they never were and ask ‘why not’? I urge you to use your imagination today in your deliberation and see things, not as the City of Kingston is or as your community is now, but as it could become.”
Mr. Chuck, who is also Member of Parliament for St. Andrew North Eastern, said that he has travelled all over the world and has noted that there are few cities with the natural beauty and charm of Kingston. “I feel that if we could develop Kingston with the natural beauty of our harbour and the hills in the background, we could attract millions of tourists to Jamaica,” he argued.
He noted that 40 to 50 years ago, Kingston was the pearl of the Caribbean “and there is no reason why it cannot become once again, the city of the Caribbean, where when people want to travel to the Caribbean they say ‘we must visit Kingston’.”
Mr. Chuck urged those gathered at the symposium to work to change this image in order to make the city a more appealing spot for visitors and residents alike.
The series of island-wide symposia were organised by the Department of Local Government in collaboration with the Planning Institute of Jamaica (PIOJ), the Social Development Commission (SDC), the Parish Development Commission, and the National Environment and Planning Agency (NEPA) under the theme: ‘My Community, Our Parish, One Jamaica – My Vision’.
The sessions were geared towards the development of a 20-year sustainable plan for each local government jurisdiction in Jamaica through discussion and interaction with residents. The purpose is to forge a vision for the development of each community and parish and to ensure that such a vision is the collective product of all relevant stakeholder groups in the parish.
The events also provided citizens with information on how to access benefits from agencies and organisations that can be of assistance in supporting projects and community activities.

Last Updated: August 19, 2013

Skip to content