Jerome Pinder (http://www.weblogbahamas.com)
I read with interest today a letter to the Tribune's Editor entitled "Observations Regarding the Straw Market," written by a group of business operators. While sad to say, I agree and support them 100%. Personally, I can't stand to walk down Bay Street and it has nothing to do with dirty buildings or sidewalks. However, it has everything to do with drunks, drug pushers, foul language, fighting, rude behaviour, foul odors, etc, etc. In one of my rare trips Down Town this year, I along with our Tourist had to witness a fight between two school students that ended with a bloody mouth and chaos between the two factions. I might add that while the Police were not visible at the time, they were very quick in responding once I had placed a call.
The letter in today's paper got me thinking about New York City and former Mayor Rudy Giuliani. Mayor Giuliani is well known for cleaning up New York City and particularly Times Square. Mayor Giuliani and his team cracked down on minor offenses and aggressively enforced the law. One of their primary goals was to send a message that law and order would be maintained and that the City would be cleaned up and kept clean. Their campaign paid off. The image of New York City and their crime statistics have drastically improved. Needless to say, a face lift to the infrastructure of Bay Street is useless unless we clean up and remove the negative culture that has developed Down Town.
My advice: Have a mobile jail on Frederick Street and a visible police presence Down Town on a daily basis. I mean a very visible, full force unit. Start fining and punishing people for littering, foul language, harassing tourist, selling drugs, fighting, etc. I don't wish to overcrowd an already overcrowded prison system. So while I believe the drug dealers should face the full consequences of the law, those charged with minor offenses should have to complete community service, including the clean up of Down Town Nassau. These cases need to be heard through a night court system so that the community service or fines can be implemented without delay. This is a common sense approach, with resources currently available, to begin the transformation of Bay Street. We cannot have this team in force for one week or one month, it must be active on a daily basis until we have sent a clear message that the culture of Bay Street has changed and unacceptable behavior is no longer the norm.
Bay Street must be revitalized for our City Centre to remain alive. The above action will begin a series of profound changes for Down Town, in line with millions of dollars being spent on infrastructure. A clean safe environment may just increase evening activity on Bay Street, encouraging businesses to remain open and cruise ship passengers to remain onshore.
I could not agree more Jerome.A couple of years ago, I had some family here on a cruise.The plan was for them to wait at the Sir Milo statue where my wife would pick them up. In a ten minute span while they waited, they were approached three times to buy drugs, three times !Police were all around them & that did not seem to matter to them.Having the the police there would be good, but they need to work the street instead of just walking the street.It is hard for me to understand what is so hard to do that, it is simple police work.Its also embarrassing to take people to bay street for more than that reason, there’s also the problem of almost all the straw work being “made in Taiwan” !Seems to me that the police can’t even keep vagrants out of the Shirley street post office, how are they going to police bay street ?I go back to the same thing again, we need a strong man police chief that will clean it all up, with a government that backs him up.
It’s all very sad Jerome, but I believe that it can all be attributed to a total lack of civility – they see nothing wrong with the foul language, dropping garbage on the sidewalk, selling drugs, etc.
A patient was on her way to the airport and stopped at a light behind a police car. He threw a KC container into the bush and she went up to the window, asked him to roll it down. She then informed him that she had his number and would send a report to his supervisor (she is a lawyer). My point with this tale – if the police do it we have to wonder if we can have any hope for change.
We too, have had friends offered drugs on Bay street and on the next block they pointed out the seller to a policeman and he informed them where they could go to report it!
We never encourage friends to visit Bay Street.
While visiting Vancouver Island a few years ago there was a concert at night near our hotel on the park outside the Parliament bulding. We were down early the next morning and the grounds and streets were clean. Check out one of our parks the day after an event and you will experience why I posted a blog some time ago titled “A nation of pigs.”
It is very sad but I do like your suggestions – the problem is to get someone to enforce the rules.