CLEVELAND “Spider Man” Lewis is healing well after being hit from his motorised chair two weeks ago, breaking his already frail left arm. But the 49-year-old, who was born with polio and since confined to a wheelchair, says members of his community are facing increasing risks on the roads.

Lewis lives in Cheshire Village — a tiny community for the disabled across the street from the Hope Institute in Elletson Flats. He says not only do motorists speed and fail to look out for the disabled, but that there are inadequate sidewalks, several of which are inaccessible by wheelchairs. Also, he complains about the sand that litters the street, which he says makes it difficult to control the wheelchairs.

“I was on the side of the road with my scooter and all of a sudden I was hit off my chair… The man took me to the hospital but my phone is gone and my scooter was all mashed up,” Lewis tells the Sunday Observer. “When the trucks are coming up from the gully, they spill sand on the road and when you’re coming down in your wheelchair it is sliding. The Government needs to pay more attention to the disabled community.”

Marlon King, who was shot in his side at age two, also lives in Cheshire Village. He shares Lewis’ sentiments and adds: “We need proper roads and good sidewalks. For a community like this we should have better roads. It is the only community with so many disabled people living together, and when we have bad roads it destroys the wheelchairs before time.”

Bad roads factor into the concerns of residents of Beverley Hills, August Town, Standpipe and Mountain View. But the main problem for the latter three is unemployment.

“Things bad fi di yout dem who just leave school. We need skills and jobs for the youth,” says Barbara “Georgia” Campbell.

She complains of not seeing the member of parliament, St Aubyn Bartlett but she, like Karen Bailey, acknowledges he has at least been granting scholarships to high school and university students.

“We need more unity and love. We need people to clean the roads like they do in Mona Heights. We have no water and the street lights don’t work good,” says Veronica Smith.

“In December the water commission said the water restrictions were lifted but they weren’t lifted for us,” says another woman. “We will get water from 6:00 in the morning until about 1:00 in the afternoon.”

Meanwhile, violence plagues Standpipe and residents fear that if unemployed youth don’t find meaningful occupation, they will become victims.

“Right now nuff yout deh pon di street who not even going to school. Is dem parents responsible but some ah dem nuh waan listen to dem parents, so we need a centre where they can go so dem can come off the street. Otherwise, a whole heap ah dem innocent yout yah ah go dead because ah nuff war ah gwaan,” one woman says.

In the Mountain View community of Jarrett Lane, the Sunday Observer meets two youngsters who have apparently escaped the lure of the streets. O’Keeno Smith and Jerome Nelson are both pursuing tertiary studies, one at the Vocational Training and Development Institute and the other at the University of the West Indies.

“People deh here who need work. Some ah dem probably never reach too far in school and even some of them with subjects don’t have any work,” says Smith, suggesting that part of the problem is their inner-city address. “Even me sometime get frustrated when I send out applications and they don’t call me back, but I don’t give up.”

“We need to spend more money on education for the younger kids from basic school, especially males. We need to get the boys into academic programmes, evening programmes, etiquette programmes so that they don’t end up on the street,” adds Nelson.

Tashika Noble says there is a similar challenge in Tavern.

“They (youth) need jobs and training and anything that will give them something to do. We need a centre to teach interview techniques, job etiquette, especially for the young women because there are many of them who are single parents and even if they have the opportunity to get a job they have no day-care or can’t afford the day-care, so they’re just left hopeless,” she says. “For the men, most of them are tradesmen. They can do the job but they’re not certified so it would be nice for someone to come in and give them some help. Most either can’t afford to pay the cost to go HEART or they are not literate. They need a little more help than the average person.”

In more affluent communities like Mona and Hope Pastures, residents say that except for theft, they can’t complain about the condition of their communities.

“People here are involved, we have a very active citizens’ association and services are reliable,” says Rev Ashley Smith. “(But) of late we’ve been having a problem of burglary. We have a mystery burglar who is going into people’s houses at night taking cash and jewellery, even my wife’s car battery once.”

Things are not so pretty for Michael Jones in Beverley Hills. He moved there from downtown Kingston to get better access to facilities and services. He didn’t bargain for the trade-off.

“You don’t know your neighbours. You’re so close and yet so far. People are not friendly. I have lived here for eight or nine years and it has always been like that,” he says. “During (tropical storm) Gustav, water flooded my yard washing away even the (vehicles). Trees, logs and rocks washed down into the yard but no one even looked out and sympathised or anything.”

He also complains of the absence of a play area for children, bad roads, in addition to light and water problems.

“Every so often the light chips out and within 10 or so seconds it comes back. We have water problems too where we will get for two or three weeks straight and then the other week there’s none. Every house has to have a tank,” he says.

The Papine Market, once a centre of bustling commercial activity, has been reduced to a dumping ground for surrounding communities.

“The entire community, Papine and surrounding areas, throw their garbage there. Domestic, residential, commercial, everything. Sometimes people come from as far as Gordon Town and if the gate is closed, they just throw it over the wall,” says Lorna Neita-Brown, one of the administrators. “It’s been going on for years now.”

And for all that ails Top Range, a community off Mountain View Avenue where unemployment and the effects of perceived violence are rife, the main problem is that the MP is “missing in action”.

“We know nutten nah gwaan, we know it sticky but him can still come roun an mek him presence be felt,” says Omar Anglin.