It would be surprising if the Government does not receive wide public support for the redevelopment projects for downtown Kingston, announced last week by Prime Minister Golding. But as Mr. Golding will be aware, the new transport centre for West Street and the rehabilitation of St. William Grant Park were previously promised by two immediate predecessors, P.J. Patterson and Portia Simpson Miller. The projects should have been completed ahead of the Cricket World Cup last year.

These projects were to have been part of a wider programme, including the recon-struction of Port Royal Street, the upgrading of markets, the rehabilitation of derelict buildings in the city centre, and, the upgrading of areas of central Kingston. The management of this initiative was to have fallen primarily to the Kingston City Centre Improvement Company, a public/private sector initiative about which little is heard these days.

Unfortunately, little of the work got off the ground. And what should be among the Caribbean's prime pieces of real estate remains hard and gritty. The good thing though, is that funding appears to be in place and contracts have actually been signed for the transport centre and St. William Grant Park projects. There are timetables for their completion.

Additionally, Mr. Golding has talked of government assistance for the rehabilitation of the iconic Ward Theatre and the revival of the previous government's proposal to develop Port Royal, the old pirate city on the other side of Kingston Harbour, into a tourism attraction. That project was stalled by its inability to attract financing.

While we like all of Mr. Golding's ideas and support his initiatives, we feel it necessary to restate our warning that merely creating showpieces will not of itself lead to the revival of downtown if the city is not lived in or made alive - starting with the administration.

Reconstruction must be concomitant with a clear and tangible commitment to downtown Kingston. What we want is the Government's physical presence downtown, rather than the helter-skelter retreat by ministries and agencies uptown.

Indeed, a major contributory factor to downtown's decline was the Government's failure to lead by example. For instance, the Government offers liberal tax concessions for the rehabilitation of property in the old city centre, but has not itself shown any commitment to the idea. So, the national Planning Institute (PIOJ) outbid a private- sector competitor for the purchase of a building from another government agency in its rush uptown. The Export/Import Bank, too, shells out a bundle for the opportunity to be in New Kingston.

The National Security and Justice ministries, having decamped the old city now pay many millions of dollars to the National Commercial Bank Group for space in buildings that were previously under the control of the Government. The Foreign Affairs Ministry and the Jamaica Tourist Board are among the other agencies that pay hefty rents to other private sector real estate firms.

Yet at the same time, the Urban Development Corporation and the Postal Corporation have an inventory of hundreds of thousands of square feet of idle space downtown. Our suggestion to Mr. Golding is that he mandate ministries and agencies to head back downtown, perhaps devising a system of incentives to encourage the move.

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