The government is moving forward with its commitment to carry out much needed improvements to the capital, St. John’s City.
Minister of Tourism, Charles Fernandez, has announced a series of measures that will improve the city’s infrastructure.
One of the country’s main tourist shopping centres, Heritage Quay, will also be refreshed.
Minister Fernandez disclosed that he will walk through the city, accompanied by Minister of Works, Maria Browne, this week to identify the areas in need of work.
“We will be doing a walk-through to see what type of remedial work is needed to our infrastructure, more specifically, our roads, our sidewalks and our gutters. The aim is to see what needs to be done so that we will be at the top of our game when the new cruise season begins later in the year,” he remarked.
The tourism minister revealed that there are ongoing discussions with APUA to install additional lights in the city.
He also noted that when the cruise ship Arvia first arrived on 28th January on its first homeporting call, its captain commended the city’s beauty in the early morning and brilliant lighting.
In addition to the government’s aesthetic improvement of the city, Fernandez announced that Global Port Ltd. will also carry out upgrades of Heritage Quay starting at the end of the current cruise season.
According to the tourism minister, US$2 million has been earmarked for the project which is expected to be completed in time for the start of the 2023/24 cruise season.
The improvements form part of Global Ports Ltd’s forty-year contractual agreement to manage the port.
Once completed, the enhancements will improve the look and user experience for those using Heritage Quay, but particularly cruise visitors for whom it is their first point of contact.
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I hope the do a walk through with dca also down by the public market with all those disgusting looking tents that obstruct the flow of traffic. Especially when coming out from the meat market. During election dca broken down numerous structures belonging to native Antiguans but turned a blin eye to the eye sore down by the market!
What has become of the Rapid Response Pot Hole Gang? There is a HUGE pothole by Clarehall School at the intersection south of the school.
Dear lord, mek them please have the wisdom to put on a much needed CENTRAL SEWAGE SYSTEM in the city. I are that the sidewalks and the streets needs to be built or refurbished. Now lights also. Lower market street is a ghetto, address that love time please. More garbages receptacles.
I don’t know how to address this one, but yet to get a way to prevent person from parking on the sidewalk.
Please please please
I walked around St Johns late last year. The City is as run down as ever. The building privately and publicly owned are in derelict conditions. High Street down from East Street to Kings Casino area has many pot holes. I really could not believe that was one of the more important streets in the City. Here is an example. When I lived in Antigua. There was a yellow building(Continental).It was always well kept by the owner. I really took a good look at that same building last year. It is water stained to the point of turning black along the sidings. The Administration needs to meet with all of those owners of buildings in St Johns.Set up an observation team,similar to an HOA(HOME OWNERS ASSOCIATION). Come with a plan for them to maintain their buildings or be fined,$$$.
For the privately owned buildings, the Government should give incentives for owners to beautify/clean up/renovate properties and fine/tax the ones who don’t.
Finish the Sunshine Hub parking area, so that downtown can become pedestrian only. The traffic and haphazardly parked cars all over the place instantly turn the city into a hot mess.
The list is long, but you gotta start somewhere.
Face-lift! St John’s needs more than a face-lift, it needs major surgery (just like the airport).
If it is possible to rebuild from scratch the government should do so – and soon!
As a major hub for tourism, why oh why hasn’t St John’s been targeted for major reconstruction in the past, present or even the future?
Baffling to say the least!
This is typical of the ABLP approach to the major problems that our island faces. And, yes, the terrible state of St. John’s is one of them. A walk through by 2 Ministers? Pure nonsense and window dressing by an incompetent administration that has no clue about governance. For Heavens Sake..get a team of professionals..Architects..Engineers and Towm Planners to assess the problems of St. John’s and come up with a plan to fix all the problems and transform St. John’s into a tourism hub..commercial centre..a town that is clean and looks good…Cut out the PR nonsense and get to work!!!
What does Max Fernandez and Maria Browne know about infrastructural development for a complex, delapidated city like St. John’s?
I am no expert, but it is clear to me that the first thing that needs to be addressed is a comprehensive sewage system for the entire city and its suburbs. This would be a major undertaking that would severely disrupt traffick and business throughout the city, for a considerable period of time.
Careful and meticulous planning, coupled with competent engineering, is required for such a critical undertaking.
A “walk through” the city by two novices would therefore accomplish nothing but a prescription for window dressing., comparable to dispensing aspirin for stage four cancer.
Our government needs to take the hard decision to redesign the layout of St. John’s and its environs and find a way to finance what would be the greatest infrasrutural development ever undertaken in this country.
I visited Dominica several times when they were installing their central sewage system in Roseau, some years ago, and I fully appreciate the enormity of the task and the total dislocation and inconvenience that was experienced by both the citizenry and businesses for months on end, but it was not forever, and once it was done, it was done. Do we have the political will to do what needs to be done? Please Max and Maria, do something else for a photo op and a chance to portray relevance.
This is not a job for Max Fernandez and Maria Brown. They have no expertise or knowledge of anything to do with construction and infrastructure. Get a team of qualifies professionals to include any and all qualified Antiguans and Barbudans and come up with a plan. This is going to take many years to accomplish, but can we be convinced that ALP really has the desire to do so?
Compare the 15 years of PLM and UPP with that of the nearly 50 years of ALP and history will tell us that ALP is not into nation building. The remark of a recent visitor from the US to our country says it all: This is a very backward country. I am not very optimistic when APL promises anything that concerns nation building.
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