Some Bay Street merchants are eagerly anticipating the start of the redevelopment of downtown Nassau, an area which has for years been plagued by unsightly buildings, a shortage of parking and accumulated garbage.<\/P><\/p>\n
The merchants yesterday cited the lack of restroom facilities and the continuous harassment by stragglers downtown as major nuisances for the area. <\/P><\/p>\n
They also said that proper security is desperately needed to safeguard hundreds of workers who make a living along Bay Street.<\/P><\/p>\n
While the idea to transform downtown Nassau into a boardwalk has been praised, some merchants feel the government is moving too slowly in starting the project.<\/P><\/p>\n
William Carey, head buyer as Solomon\uffb4s Mines, who has been a member of numerous committees geared at devising plans to revitalize the area, said he and his colleagues have formulated great ideas over the years. However, he said there have been no changes.<\/P><\/p>\n
\uff93I\uffb4m sad to say I\uffb4ve seen no real development, or improvement for the last 10 years since I\uffb4ve been in retail,\uff92 he said.<\/P><\/p>\n
\uff93I\uffb4ve suggested making certain areas more pedestrian and really taking our tourists into consideration by having rest areas and outdoor verandas with restaurants and the whole works. I know they talked about redeveloping the Charlotte Street area, but that has yet to come to fruition.\uff92<\/P><\/p>\n
Mr. Carey said he would like to see retail, culture and the overall beach scenery fused to create a better ambiance in the area.<\/P><\/p>\n
\uff93Taking into consideration Bay Street with the beaches between here and Arawak Cay, I would like to see some kind of development that merges these three things to make it a [better] destination, so that you\uffb4re not just coming to Nassau for shopping. I would love to see that,\uff92 he said.<\/P><\/p>\n
Mr. Carey said parking is always a major problem. However, he rejected the idea of building more parking lots. Instead, he said the government should focus its efforts on creating a more efficient public transit system.<\/P><\/p>\n
The call to improve Bay Street is not only coming from Bahamians, but tourists as well.Mr. Carey said he has gotten a lot of negative feedback from visitors.<\/P><\/p>\n
\uff93I have had customers who said that they visited The Bahamas before and on their second trip the place was cleaner. However, recently I\uffb4ve been getting more negative feedback, stating that Bay Street has become somewhat dirtier than it used to be,\uff92 he said.<\/P><\/p>\n
\uff93It saddens me because I do a lot of traveling and I know the potential Nassau and other areas have, including Arawak Cay. It saddens me that we don\uffb4t take full advantage of that.\uff92<\/P><\/p>\n
Charlene Johnson, Manager at The Colombian, said there is much to do in terms of redeveloping Bay Street. <\/P><\/p>\n
\uff93There are a lot of strays downtown, especially the guys who like to hang out around here, and it\uffb4s causing a problem because tourists get scared when they see scruffy looking guys coming around the area,\uff92 she said.<\/P><\/p>\n
\uff93It\uffb4s a problem for me too when I\uffb4m closing up the store in the evening just to see them there. I\uffb4m always wondering what they\uffb4re going to do. So maybe the government can step in and ensure that these men are diverted somewhere else so that downtown can stay nice and clean. After all, we want to make sure that Bay Street is a place where the tourists will say \uff91wow this is the place to shop\uffb4 this is the place to be.\uffb4\uff92<\/P><\/p>\n
Ms. Johnson said Bay Street workers also need special provisions regarding parking.<\/P><\/p>\n
\uff93Not only do we need more parking for the employees, but we need closer parking. Personally, when I get off late at night if I\uffb4m going to a parking area that\uffb4s far away, I\uffb4m afraid to leave. It\uffb4s scary, and someone could be following me. So we really need closer parking for people who work here,\uff92 she said.<\/P><\/p>\n
Naomi Bonaby of the Perfume Bar said there is a huge shortage of adequate bathroom facilities downtown.<\/P><\/p>\n
\uff93We have a lot of problems with restrooms,\uff92 Ms. Bonaby said. \uff93The tourists come in and they always ask, \uff91where can we go for a restroom,\uffb4 and I have to recommend Lum\uffb4s upstairs or Solomon\uffb4s Mines. I think it\uffb4s a shame, so we definitely need more restrooms,\uff92 she said.<\/P><\/p>\n
\uff93We also need more parking for Bay Street because it\uffb4s very hectic, and normally we have to pay $6 to park just for one day. We need proper restaurants. It\uffb4s so hard, we work all day and we can\uffb4t even find a proper restaurant to eat. They need to look into that and better that situation.\uff92<\/P><\/p>\n
Ms. Bonaby also believes that there needs to be more security placement in the area.<\/P><\/p>\n
\uff93Sometimes the guys come into our shop spraying up the colognes and harassing us and causing problems,\uff92 she said. \uff93It\uffb4s horrible.\uff92<\/P><\/p>\n
Meantime, Chairman of the Nassau Tourism and Development Board, Mike Klonaris, who is also the owner of Mike\uffb4s Shoe Store, said while plans have not been completely finalized as yet, there are short, mid and long term strategies to beautify the area, which will not only encompass Bay Street, but the stretch from Arawak Cay to Montagu as well.<\/P><\/p>\n
\uff93We want to transform downtown not only into a shopping Mecca, but a place where you would want to stay for the entire day. That way the experience becomes a wonderful event, and not just some place where you come here, shop and then leave. The city would become so accommodating to the customer,\uff92 he said.<\/P><\/p>\n
\uff93Millionaires come down here and bypass the place because it\uffb4s such a pain to find parking or to maneuver.\uff92<\/P><\/p>\n
Mr. Klonaris said building multi-family condos downtown would not only be a beautiful venture, but a wise investment as well.<\/P><\/p>\n
\uff93When we move the shipping yard, think of how great it will be to have family units on the waterfront,\uff92 he said. \uff93It\uffb4s a beautiful idea, and besides, why can\uffb4t we have our own Paradise Island on Bay Street? It\uffb4s completely workable.\uff92<\/P><\/p>\n
Mr. Klonaris said while major changes will take a little longer, the first phase of the beautification process should begin soon. Plans are also on the drawing board to make the area more handicap accessible. <\/P><\/p>\n
\uff93There\uffb4s an entire package that we\uffb4re dealing with, and of course we will have to implement the proper legislation to assist,\uff92 he said. \uff93It\uffb4s really a lot to do, and we will need the will of everybody. But you\uffb4ll see, it will be astonishing, like a stone rolling down the hill.\uff92<\/P><\/p>\n
Rogan M. Smith, The Bahama Journal<\/B><\/P><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
While the idea to transform downtown Nassau into a boardwalk has been praised, some merchants feel the government is moving too slowly in starting the project.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"initial","rop_publish_now_accounts":{"facebook_10223285771444175_51037792744":""},"rop_publish_now_history":[],"rop_publish_now_status":"pending","footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-246349","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-headlines"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/246349","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=246349"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/246349\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=246349"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=246349"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=246349"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}