MONTEGO Bay has long had an uneasy relationship with the capital Kingston, asserting consistently that it is kept beholden to the seat of government, and that its development has been held ransom to decisions made 125 miles away. Often, the passion is understandable – Montego Bay is filthy in some sections, thriving in others.

Its leaders, mainly those in business and tourism, want the independence and the cash generated from taxes, to decide where the priorities should be placed.

They made the complaints when MoBay was still a tourism ‘town’; they made them 25 years ago when its city status became enshrined in law; and again 21 years ago when the city became ‘an adult’.

It is this consistency of appeal that has brought the joking but constant reference to Montego Bay as a ‘republic’.

Last week, the appeals for autonomy were no different as the city reflected on its direction after a quarter-of-a-century.

Its status, both civic and political leaders agree, is a designation in name only.

“Over the last 25 years, I don’t think that we have achieved nearly what we should have. For all intents and purposes we are a city only in name and not in function,” said Montego Bay Chamber of Commerce and Industry president Mark Kerr-Jarrett.

“We lack any kind of municipal or local government autonomy which has been promised (to us) over the last eight years,” added the prominent businessman and developer, whose family name is synonymous with large land holdings in the city.

According to Kerr-Jarrett, the city’s continued dependence on central government for funding and for support services, such as solid waste collection and the fire service, have served only to limit its ability to direct its own course.

Montego Bay essentially sits on two sides of a river – its famous Creek, which has been transformed into the South Gully, a massive drain that takes water, and waste, to the sea.

The city also stands out in its peculiar history, having held city status some 125 years ago. That status was later revoked, under colonial rule.

The 1980 proclamation, then, would have been a re-instatement of status.

Today, the city stretches from Rose Hall at the east to Great River at west, and for tourism purposes, often Round Hill which is located in Hopewell, Hanover is associated with Montego Bay, the resort centre.

Montego Bay proper is Jamaica’s largest tourism resort, and as such makes a significant contribution to the national economy.

It is the home of Jamaica’s and the Caribbean’s largest airport, Sangster International, and as such is the gateway to most of the island’s tourist visitors whose spend significantly boosts the current accounts component of the balance of payments.

Travel last grew by US$9.1 billion to US$86.2 million year on year to May 2005, helping to narrow the current account deficit to US$64.4 million, according to the most recent BOP data released by the Bank of Jamaica.

Montego Bay has no direct access to the tourism dollars, a long time sore point for city leaders, who say funds that ought to be dedicated to improving the city’s aesthetic and hospitality product are diluted throughout the country, leading overtime to a denigration of the resort.

The city is often criticised for its ramshackle appearance, with piles of garbage along some streets the norm, and clogged drains and overflowing gullies a standard feature.

Kerr-Jarrett believes that funding from the tourist dollar could change the image of the city.

“The city should get a percentage of the departure tax which could be used for public cleansing, the establishment of a municipal court, the maintenance of sidewalks and parks and to care for our indigent,” the businessman argues.

He notes that the portions of property taxes and motor vehicle fees the city receive from central government are not adequate to provide the necessary financial resources for its development.

Member of Parliament for North West St James Dr Horace Chang whose constituency encompasses the main commercial centre of Montego Bay, believes that the city has not achieved much since it was granted city status in 1980.

“Montego Bay has grown over time because of the growth in tourism and other economic activity but by virtue of the status, I don’t that we have achieved anything significant,” said Chang.

“We still don’t have any additional autonomy; we still don’t have increased authority for the secretary; we don’t have a city engineer. We just don’t have any of the kind of institutional infrastructure that is appropriate to a city,” the politician said.

He argues that the key ingredient in city administration is the quality of its administrators, saying there was need to upgrade skills in that area.

But, like Kerr-Jarrett, he said what the city really needed was to be weaned from Kingston and given the technical support to make decisions on its behalf.

“We ought to have a city engineer as opposed to the present superintendent of works,” he argues. “Montego Bay should have a city engineer who should do the planning and the development for the city.”

He also agreed with Kerr-Jarrett’s position that Montego Bay does not have the administrative power and resources befitting a city.

“What we have gotten is a change of status by law which is not enough to give us the institutional structures to go forward as a city,” said Chang, a deputy leader of the opposition Jamaica Labour Party.

“We need the institutional changes to give us the kind of autonomy that a city deserves, and if that happens we will be able to give civil society a more active role in the administration of the city.”

But, still in question is who has the moral authority to truly lead the transformation.

Montego Bay will always be haunted by an unorthodox and criminal attempt to rid itself of its homeless and derelicts, scooping up about 32 of them, and dumping them, tied and pepper-sprayed, in St Elizabeth in the dead of night.

St Elizabeth awoke to find the homeless, some of them mentally ill, roaming its streets, and a scandal was born, leading to an enquiry and trial of police officers who were said to be involved.

The city is not only unimpressive because of the grime, but also what many see as a lack of pride among business owners, many of whom fail to maintain the infrastructure of the business, adding to the city’s ‘uglification’.

Montego Bay in the mid-1990s was given the dubious distinction of having the most squatter communities – ringed by some 17, mostly squalid settlements in which crime festered and criminals found refuge.

The city was unable to ignore the problem because garbage and human waste would constantly wash down into the gullies and eventually into the sea, harming the beaches where the tourists came to play.

Flankers, the most infamous of the informal settlements, is known for its penchant to block roads and demonstrate, and is feared because each time it does, the city locks down, the airport is usually inaccessible, and tourists are locked in to keep them safe.

But, also within the city’s core is the inner-city rot that lie just beyond the main streets, in easy reach.

According to Chang, the changes would allow more people to become involved in the local government process.

Giving the city more autonomy, Chang believes, would provide the opportunity to seriously address the inner-city decay that has been dogging Montego Bay, insisting that local groups have a greater will than central government to get it done.

“If we have more autonomy the inner-city decay could be addressed in a more positive manner,” said Chang, who is also the JLP’s spokesman on housing and inner-city development.

Concerns have long been raised about the negative effect of the squatters.

Superintendent John Morris, crime chief for the Area One police division, for example, has long complained of the challenges posed by the 17 squatter settlements.

In most of these communities, Morris has said, there is little or poor lighting, no roadway, no street signs and the squatting is taking place, most times, on high ground.

Earlier this year, police commissioner Lucius Thomas, on a visit to Montego Bay, urged company bosses to vigorously lobby government to regulate the settlements, many of which he said has become unsightly, squalid slums.

“These settlements have proven harmful not only to the tourism product, on which the economy of St James is founded, but also to persons living and working in close proximity,” said Thomas, then addressing a St James combined neighbourhood watch group.

In essence, Montego Bay has become as famous for its tourism and beaches, as it is infamous domestically for its ‘at-risk’ communities.

Former Montego Bay mayor Cecil Donaldson who was among a number of St James councillors to lobby central government for the granting of city status, says it is high time for the problems that beset the inner-city communities to be placed on the front burner.

“It is full time that the many inner-city problems that we have, be solved,” the former mayor stressed. “I think that the Railway Lane houses, for example, should be levelled and replaced with townhouses or business places,” he argues.

“When you look again at the Barracks Road area, overlooking the Creek, that’s a total disgrace,” said Donaldson who was serving as mayor at the time when Montego Bay was granted city status.

He too is disappointed that, after 25 years, Montego Bay still does not have a city engineer.

“How can we boast that we are a city, with all those buildings that we are putting up and other developments and we don’t have a city engineer?” he questioned.

“We really need a city engineer to do proper planning and to meet other people (from different countries) on equal status when they come here.

I am really grieved and hurt about the fact that we don’t have one,” said Donaldson who served as mayor from 1966 to 1969 and again from 1975 to 1981.

He is also bemoaning the lack of civic pride displayed by the city’s businessmen.

“The business people rake in a lot of money but they don’t spend any to beautify their surroundings,” said Donaldson.

But, with all the problems besetting the city, Donaldson believes that “some progress” has been made.

He points to the:

. expansion of the Sangster International Airport;

. development of the Montego Bay Freeport;

. construction of the Montego Bay Civic Centre, which doubles as a town hall;

. construction and expansion of several hotels;

. dualisation of the Howard Cooke Highway and Alice Eldermire Drive;

. construction of several business establishments such as the KFC Building, Montego Bay Shopping Centre and Fairview Shopping Complex; and

. numerous housing developments.

Businessman Shalman Scott, who is also a former mayor of the city, was more positive in his outlook, saying Montego Bay has evolved into a modern industrial and commercial operation, facilitated by the existence of an international airport and seaport.

“The leap in growth in commercial and economic activity has also led to the transformation of the social life of the city, in spite of the existence of the 17 squatter settlements,” Scott said.

He concedes however that there is a need for the strengthening of the political and administrative systems in the city.

But he notes that the city’s mayor Noel Donaldson, who is the son of former mayor Cecil Donaldson, is already moving to address the deficiencies in those areas.

“Mayor Donaldson is looking at ways to improve the political and administrative structures and to that end has set up a committee to look at a city charter which will provide further autonomy for the city,” said Scott.

Montego Bay attorney Natalie Messado-Brown chairs that committee.

The first draft of the charter is to be presented to city residents by year-end, for discussion and eventual adoption.

The mayor hopes that after the consultations, a document that will reflect the views and wishes of the citizens on the way forward, will emerge.

This he believes will help to address the ills facing the city, clearing the way for new development.

“Giving the city the autonomy it deserves, I believe, will allow us to attract investments and to maintain law and order and, in general, it would positively impact on the city,” said Mayor Donaldson, the younger.

“Under the leadership of the local council and working with the Montego Bay Chamber of Commerce and Industry, for example, we would be able to achieve a lot.”

Kerr-Jarrett agrees and points out that the chamber has already started to work with the St James Parish Council to revive the Greater Montego Bay Redevelopment Committee (GMRC), in an effort to revive the city’s development plan.

The plan, beset by controversy, has been shelved. Its pioneering creator, whose work on GMBA Plan 2014 gained international recognition, Arlene Dixon, has since passed away.

Dixon had envisioned a city of prosperous neighbourhoods, zoned areas for residence and commerce, a city rebuilt on order and respect for space.

But her dream was mired by infighting in the city, as well as hurdles at the central planning authority – in Kingston.

“The GMRC is coming back to life gradually and is now being housed out of the parish council,” Kerr-Jarrett said.

The whole business plan is being put together by Mrs (Sophia) Kerr-Reid, who is the director of planning at the parish council and we are looking to take on a project manager and put in a proper administrative infrastructure,” Kerr-Jarrett said.

The GMRC’s major objective is to provide the resort town of Montego Bay with a modern, workable development plan that would eventually be promulgated into a Development Order, through an Act of Parliament.

The plan was completed at a cost of roughly $9 million.

More than a year ago, the National Housing Trust pledged $12 million to the GMRC to be used to facilitate the plan’s revival.

Kerr-Jarrett said as soon as the GMRC is up and running again the funds would be drawn down.

In the meantime, MoBay remains a city still searching for its ethos.

cummingsm@jamaicaobserver.com