Downtown Kingston Cultural District Project to be Expanded

The Kingston and St. Andrew Municipal Corporation (KSAMC) project to transform downtown into a cultural district will be expanded during Reggae Month in February.

The initiative, which involves infrastructure and beautification works, aims to highlight the country’s iconic musical heritage while creating a space for recreation.

It includes the renovation of roadways, sidewalk improvement and drainage works and the mounting of murals that tell stories of the country’s musical past.

“For Reggae Month, the municipality will be expanding some of the projects downtown. We have been pedestrianising some roadways and softening the streetscape in sections of the urban centre,” said Mayor of Kingston, Senator Councillor Delroy Williams, at the Reggae Month Church Service held on Sunday (January 29).

He informed that the project will be expanded along Mark Lane, where murals have been painted and paving stones laid, along with sections of Orange, Charles and Beeston Streets.

“Those streets are very pivotal in the evolution of our musical culture and the evolution of our music industry, and we have to pay homage to the role that sections of the city space played in the creation of the music,” he noted.

Mayor Williams said infrastructure works will also be undertaken on sections of Church Street, from Barry Street to Ocean Boulevard.

“We will be bricking the streets and planting trees and creating gardens along Church Street. That is just part of the small work that we are doing pursuing the destination city concept,” he said, adding that the objective of the municipality is to make downtown a tourism city.

The Mayor said the private sector is confident in the development of downtown, noting the many investments taking place in the area and renovation of buildings that are being put to commercial use.

“That says a lot about confidence… about the private sector being willing to take risks in downtown,” he said.

Reggae Month is observed in February each year to highlight and celebrate the impact of the musical genre.

The church service was held at Fellowship Tabernacle in Kingston under the theme ‘We come to ketch the rhythm in reverence and praise’.