#BTEditorial – Bridgetown in need of urgent rescue plan

Much has been made of the plans by Government to convert the Treasury Building in Bridgetown into a fancy new residential facility in the heart of the capital.

It is a plan for which many Barbadians remain skeptical because of the building’s proximity to Parliament and the fact that it would seem an oddity, given its prime location. Others have mused about the difficulty in removing its longstanding occupant and street character Ninja Man.

We will not pour cold water on the project, at least not yet, given that the public is yet to be told how this one high-rise living arrangement at one end of Broad Street, will be incorporated into the overall plan for Bridgetown.

As it stands, people are generally not sure how or if the UNESCO designation of historic Bridgetown and its Garrison as a World Heritage Site, ties into the future commercial and residential development.

Without the benefit of those details, what is being presented appears to be a hodgepodge of projects without the genuine connective tissue that makes it palatable to the average citizen.

Miss Brathwaite from Bayland, who has to use the Fairchild Street Bus Terminal (now renamed the Granville Williams Bus Terminal), and is forced to traverse from the other end of Bridgetown at the Princess Alice Terminal after work in the evening, must be very concerned about her safety while walking along the dimly lit areas between Cheapside, Lower Broad Street, Heroes’ Square, and across the Bridge.

While there have been projects led by the Barbados Chamber of Commerce & Industry (BCCI) to erect lights in several parts of Bridgetown, many of those lights are not now working, and like many important developments in Barbados, consistent maintenance has been their undoing.

The capital has been changing over the past 20 to 30 years and, unfortunately, many of those changes have not been for the good.

The persistent decline in quality of the City’s infrastructure has largely been the result of the exodus of businesses and offices to popular urban corridors such as Welches in St Thomas, Warrens in St Michael, and Sheraton Centre in Christ Church.

Landlords have not been incentivized to invest in the aged plants when tenants are running from city buildings like rats fleeing a sinking ship.

The Satjay Mall on Victoria Street, for example, was supposed to be a Bridgetown owner’s response to changing customer tastes away from single stores to modern, attractive malls where a variety of shops and offerings are in one environment.

That attempt did not reap the returns expected. The Colonnade Mall and Mall 34 on Broad Street are shadows of their selves.

We applaud those business owners on Swan Street, Broad Street, and Roebuck Street, who still believe in the charm of the old city and imagine that a carefully designed and executed plan for revival of Bridgetown, can return the location to its former glory.

We remain wary about the city’s future despite recently announced plans to dust off the near 30-year-old Pierhead Project in the hope that its sparkle could become the prescription which the capital requires.

In the meantime, a comprehensive formula that takes into consideration, the shifting consumer needs, the migration of large numbers of workers to commercial concentrations located in other parts of the island, the traffic requirements, upliftment of existing low-income residential communities, as well as the commercial and business interests of those who have committed to staying put, must be conceived.

We cannot discount the lack of quality entertainment facilities as a contributor to the city’s decline. Entertainment and restaurants drive patrons to these spots. A prime example of this is the Copacabana Beach Club on Bay Street.

Once the site of a derelict property, it now hosts some of the most exclusive entertainment events with exquisite Carlisle Bay in the backdrop. A great deal of hope is also hinged on commencement of the Hyatt Hotel also on Bay Street.

As we have articulated, the various development plans appear to be in silos, leaving Barbadians to wonder how all this will revive Bridgetown in a way that is sustainable and encouraging people to not only want to work there, but be proud to live and play there.