CRUISE ships, tourist-oriented shops, lively entertainment: It’s a vision that many businessmen and merchants have for the blighted downtown.

The reality is grimmer.

Taxis park illegally on the streets, aggravating traffic congestion. Street vendors operate wherever they want, contributing to a crush of shoppers. Streets are all but impassible.

“It’s anarchy,” said one long-time merchant, who asked not to be named.

And in such a disorderly environment, he said, it’s next to impossible for police to operate. Illegal activities thrive amid the human logjam.

Eight days ago, the problems were highlighted again in the heart of downtown. A spate of violence left one alleged criminal dead and six people wounded in what police called a “shoot-out”. Later that day, a policeman was slain while on foot patrol.

Predictably, hundreds of angry residents marched through the streets the following Monday. Some stoned a police station. Hundreds of stores — fearing a spasm of looting and violence — closed their doors for the day.

Downtown became a shadow of itself as jittery shoppers stayed away for the rest of the week.

“Overall, I would say that sales for this week fell 40 to 55 per cent,” said the long-time merchant.

Intent on turning around the downtown, members of Jamaica Chamber of Commerce’s downtown subcommittee held lengthy discussions last week on what to do.

“Everybody expressed a great deal of frustration, both about the time it’s taking to solve downtown’s problems, and the fear, basically, that they feel,” said Michael Ammar, a downtown merchant, who is a vice-president of the Chamber of Commerce.

Last year the government launched an urban renewal project in downtown Kingston, starting at Rae Town, which is east of the business district.

Merchants at the time argued that the administration had got its priorities skewed and had, in fact, departed from agreed positions.

However, the merchants have not given up.

A 10-point proposal emerged from last week’s meetings, which chamber members plan to take to government officials as part of efforts to turn around downtown.

“Everybody has signed off on it,” Ammar said.

Over the past few years, he noted, chamber members have met with various government officials about some of the proposals, including Prime Minister PJ Patterson. The response has been positive — although there has been little follow-through.

Last year, he noted, frustrated downtown merchants threatened to hold a general strike — unless officials pledged to start taking action downtown. To defuse the situation, PJ Patterson pledged to bring about changes.

But downtown’s blighted condition remains as bad as ever, said Ammar.

“We don’t want to go into another Christmas season with downtown in the state of disaster that it’s in,” he said.

The government had pledged to remove vendors from the streets into arcades and markets, but met resistance and the plan eventually fell apart.

He said downtown has the potential to attract tourism and cruise ships, which would give a boost not only to downtown, but to the greater downtown area.

Along with merchants, major companies that are pushing for downtown’s renewal are: BNS, NCB, and CIBC banks, Burger King and KFC, and Grace, Kennedy.

Among highlights of the 10-point proposal:

* Restore and sustain adequate police presence and control in the downtown commercial and market districts.

* Relocate all vending into the approved vending areas and markets only.

* Amend the penalties for street vending to seizure of goods upon arrest, and forfeiture of those goods upon conviction.

* Reduce congestion downtown by relocating the excess buses and taxis from North, South and West Parade, and regularise the taxis to specific loading bays.

* Undertake a complete clean-up and face lift for all public spaces downtown.

* Reimplement the courtesy corps and use it to combat the problems of illegal street vending, illegal dumping, and petty crimes in the downtown area.

* Design a marketing and promotional plan for downtown. In particular, the market districts need to be promoted.

* Implement the waterfront redevelopment proposals made by the Jamaica Chamber of Commerce to include a cruise ship pier and facilities, a waterfront entertainment complex for concerts, and a waterfront promenade to link these features.