Wayne Chen, the chairman of the Urban Development Corporation (UDC), responded to critics of the agency's plan to spend millions on fireworks at the Kingston waterfront to herald the new year as part of the effort of the UDC to rebrand the Jamaican capital, particularly the downtown area.

For, as Mr Chen argued, not unreasonably, part of the UDC's remit is urban renewal, which includes signalling that a city with a reputation for being crime-ridden and unsafe can operate with a sense of normality, where people can live, conduct business, play and entertain themselves in reasonable order. Indeed, no part of the Jamaican capital needs this kind of makeover or change in perception more than downtown.

The old section of the city has been allowed to grow hard and gritty, over the last 40 years or so, accelerated in the 1960s and 1970s with the deve-lopment of the New Kingston business district. Corporate Jamaica emigrated from downtown, with its narrow lanes and Georgian architecture to the medium and high-rises and plazas of uptown. Abandoned buildings became derelict and havens for criminals, while surrounding communities, captured as political garrisons, assumed all the worse features of urban blight and decay. Efforts at renewal have been limited and spasmodic and episodic, responding to the same reminder of the social pressure points of urban decay.

Sanitised environment

But, as Mr Chen well understands, and fully appreciates, fixing downtown demands more than a once-a-year fireworks display, at whatever cost, in a cordoned, sanitised environment. It requires the liberation of the entire area to normal activity, with relative safety. Accomplishing this requires, critically, a catalyst - an anchor around which the renewal of what is already one of the Caribbean's most vibrant marketplaces can be built.

We believe that that responsibility, in the current environment, lies with the Government, which already offers the private sector tax credits on refurbishment and rental income on downtown property, but has itself largely stayed away. Indeed, we have often in these columns lamented the tragedy of government institutions joining the flight to uptown and welcomed Prime Minister Bruce Golding's moratorium of more agencies leaving downtown - even though there have been cracks in the directive. We support too the plan to create a foreign affairs/embassy enclave in the old city.

Conservative estimates

The Government, however, can, and must do more in leading by example now. The current fiscal crisis, we feel, provides the perfect opportunity for the administration to move decisively in this direction.

For instance, by the most conservative estimates, the central government and its agencies spend upwards of $100 million a year renting office space in New Kingston and its environs. In recent years, at least two government agencies have spent around half a billion dollars to purchase property in the area, to be part of the feel-good corporate environment.

Yet, in downtown Kingston, Mr Chen's UDC has perhaps 100,000 square feet of empty office, which, with minor modifications, could accommodate government agencies. The Oceana hotel remains largely empty, while the Postal Corporation's Central Sorting Office, with a rationalisation of its use of space, could easily offer 40,000 square feet to government customers.

Mr Chen is right about the need for rebranding downtown. Perhaps his expensive fireworks will work as a geographic marker for the Government.

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