Culture as a Driver of Downtown Kingston's Development

"Planning is not technical, its political" said Dr. Pedro Ortiz, Urban planner, former Mayor of Madrid and consultant to the World Bank. He urged us to coalesce around a vision for Downtown Kingston that incorporates three strands, the economic, the social and the physical in our quest to redevelop and protect the old city of Downtown Kingston.

Redeveloping Downtown Kingston is just a small piece of an overall national framework for urban planning that is needed for the larger metropolis of Kingston. That large framework will require a national consensus to pull together. Over the years we have seen several "top-down" plans come and go, with no discernible change in the city.

What was made clear in today's session was the need for ground up action and Private Sector and Civil Society strategic leadership on the issue of Downtown. In relative global terms, Downtown Kingston is at the scale of a small neighbourhood, with low population growth and good tangible and intangible assets.

Based on timelines thrown out by Ortiz, Downtown redevelopment within 5 years is an achievable goal. Ortiz listed several projects that could be accomplished in anywhere from a few months to a year that would radically shift the old city. The point was well made that we do not need to wait on another plan, we need to take "immediate action". Ortiz stressed that leadership must come from Private Sector and Civil Society as political leaders wont be around in 30 years, but the businesses, organisations and families in the room, some over 200 years old, would be there.

Ortiz, himself a previous Mayor of Madrid, defined the role of a Mayor and broke down the political considerations that can impede swift decision-making and action. He called on the stakeholders in the room to take immediate action, on the "obvious", low hanging fruit - definition of Kingston's brand as a Creative City and Cultural hub, the provision of green social spaces, simple beautification projects, painting and restoration of buildings by their owners, creation of economic opportunities aligned with the brand (Creative City) and encouraging space for communities to earn.

Yesterday, Ortiz delivered the address at the inaugural Maurice Facey Lecture, held at the Jamaica Conference Centre with over 400 people in attendance. Unsurprisingly, none of the ideas posited were brand new. Rehabilitating the railway and station in Downtown, even the creation of a freight airport, all have been studied and proposed before.  Numerous plans prepared by consultants to successive political directorates as well as by private sector groups remain unimplemented.  So the followup closed door session hosted by the JCC took a look at what short, medium and long terms steps could be taken by Private Sector and Civil Society to revitalise the Old Town of Downtown Kingston.

“The problems of Kingston are essential to the good functioning of Jamaica on a whole, they are matters of national concern. If the city doesn’t work the country doesn’t work” - Pedro Ortiz 

For your reference, here are some of the discussion points from the Jamaica Chamber of Commerce Breakfast session this morning:

• We spoke of the railway, the environment, social issues, the roadways and a specifically establishing a connection between the Old City and New Kingston as well as the issue of housing... the only thing that we did not mention was crime. There is a cost to doing nothing. What would you say are the top three things that don’t work in the Old City/ Downtown Kingston and which if left unaddressed can negatively impact all of Jamaica?
• “Kingston’s growth is manageable (1%) when compared to the growth of other metropolis (avg. of 5%) and can be easily confronted with a vision.” What would be your vision for transforming Downtown Kingston? 
• Kingston is a UNESCO Creative City of music and Jamaica is one of the most creative countries - with a cultural impact that is disproportionate to its size. The people that live and work in and around Downtown Kingston create our music, dances, slang, fashion. They are the intangible assets of the city and are stakeholders in any successful transformation. Yesterday we cited the example of Singapore where they integrate health, education and social benefits along with the infrastructure development.  What are your proposals for incorporating the people and even the cultural communities like Trench Town (home of Bob Marley) in your vision for Downtown Kingston? How do the communities get a voice in how the city is shaped?
• The talk yesterday was under the theme – The Cost of Chaos. Anyone who has been at this for a half a minute knows only too well that we exist in a somewhat chaotic framework of "disaggregated polis" – where the responsibility, coordination and management of this UNESCO Creative City is split into multiple agencies under multiple Ministries with no single coordinator or unifying vision. Having both had experience as Mayors in Madrid and Kingston respectively, what would you say is the real role of a Mayor in transforming a city? Is the role of the mayor to build consensus? To get alignment from every agency? To enable Private Sector initiatives? Or to just act independently of these technocrats and agencies?
• Good public transport is a necessary part of good urban planning. “Take the rail system out of London and Paris and it becomes Bogota" (..or for us, Constant Spring Road!). We used to have trams and railways in Downtown – we now have buses and the dreaded route taxis. Can you speak to what you see as an ideal transportation model for Downtown Kingston? Should it be pedestrianized? Should we have car-free days? What would good public transport for the old city look like?
• Yesterday, we said that Private Sector and Civil society should be leading the strategic planning for the metropolis as these specific politicians won’t be there in 30 years, but these families and businesses will. Despite many plans, the cash that is available locally and that already has been put into the problem over the years, we still seem to be stuck when it comes to the issue of Downtown. The fact that Private Sector and Civil society heads are all in the room leads me to ask the question – what three things do you think the people in this room could implement relatively independently, with PS and CS taking the lead (and government playing an enabling role)?
• Let’s talk about the architecture of Downtown and historical preservation. How important is it to protect the historic nucleus of the old city? What role does the JNHT play in this? When buildings are owned by separate owners, what are some approaches that work to get everyone on board with maintaining the facades and therefore the look and feel of the old city?
• Last but not least - the environment. Most of us have seen the sea level modeling and understand that some of Downtown.. not all of it thankfully.. will be impacted within 20 years. We know that our history is here, our museums and cultural centres and galleries.  Downtown is that King piece in the game of chess, and needs to be protected. The three responses to Climate change are confrontation, adaptation or evasion – how should we be preparing for and reacting to climate change in Downtown Kingston?

The answers were fascinating and far too long to include here. But these are questions that we all need to consider as we plan to take immediate action around Downtown Kingston. I am personally looking forward to the second step for the Jamaica Chamber of Commerce as they continue to play their role in convening stakeholders and getting Downtown development back on track.

Andrea Dempster-Chung, PE | Co-Founder and Executive Director, Kingston Creative

Andrea is a professional engineer and holds a Master of Science in Structural Engineering, a Bachelor of Science in Civil and Environmental Engineering from the Georgia Institute of Technology and a Prince2 Certification in Project Management. She was formerly the Director of Technical Services in the Ministry of Housing where she was responsible for developing 90 joint venture, public-private-partnership housing developments across the island.  She has held senior corporate roles in major Downtown companies - Digicel and GraceKennedy - and has served on the boards of Jamaica Social Investment Fund, The National Land Agency and the Public Health Committee. She is a strategic business consultant and has coached entrepreneurs from Jamaica National's SEBI programme, the Branson Centre of Entrepreneurship and from ASPIRE, Barbados. In 2017, Andrea led the Arts portfolio for the British Council in Jamaica, where she developed the Arts strategy and implemented key projects in film, literature and visual art.   Andrea is currently the co-founder and Executive Director of Kingston Creative, a movement to transform Downtown through the arts, and also the founder of Bookophilia, a bookstore and cafe on Hope Road that promotes Caribbean literature.  She speaks French and Spanish and has studied at the Sotheby’s School of Art in London, the Stanford School of Business in California and was featured in Forbes in 2019 as one of 10 women leading the charge for a sustainable future for Jamaica through development of its creative industries.