As a lad growing up in Montego Bay, this writer had some wonderful experiences, especially freedom to walk anywhere safely at anytime. Rich cultural experiences surrounded the Strand, Palladium and Roxy cinemas; music sessions at Overton Plaza; swimming at Brick Hill and Sunset beaches; football and cricket at the Social Development Commission on Albion Road; perfect productions at Little Theatre in Fairfield, and myriad moments of unfettered happiness. The town developed systematically into Jamaica’s tourism mecca and parliament granted its deserved city status on October 9, 1980. Local Government Minister Pearnel Charles made the official proclamation in Sam Sharpe Square on May 1, 1981. That May Day became MoBay Day, a blissful moment in the lives of Montegonians. Fun in the sunny second city seemed unending as this freelance journalist got bird’s-eye views of Miss City of Montego Bay Pageant, Reggae Sunsplash, and other momentous developments. A group of us fourth-estate Montegonians was flown to Miami and back, to report on that leg of the London-Miami-Montego Bay run of Air Florida. Montego Bay was on an unstoppable roll to becoming Jamaica’s greater city, not by population size but by its superior texture of life above Kingston, the designated national capital.

City fathers saw the need to have United States embassy, prime minister’s office, and university and college branches established in MoBay. The Howard Cooke Highway, Sangster International Airport, Cornwall Regional Hospital, Montego Freeport, world-class hotels, major media bureaus, excellent churches and para-church groups, and some of the greatest high schools on the planet, such as Cornwall College, all gave MoBay an undeniable flavour of greatness. High-class living without the hustle, bustle, crime and grime of a typical concrete jungle gave MoBay its superior, unique city status. The proximity of the city to the luscious, picturesque fauna and flora of rural St James and other unspoiled western communities suggested that Montego Bay, with its tourism dollars, its educational resources and help from diaspora Montegonians, would develop into Jamaica’s chief city. If tradition or some other glitch caused politicians to keep Kingston as the geographic capital, Montego Bay still had potential to become the major city of Cornwall county of Jamaica, and the entire Caribbean. For example, New York and Miami seem more popular than Washington DC, the official US capital. Likewise, some people think Miami and not Tallahassee is the capital of Florida. Once upon a time Montego Bay seemed destined to rival Kingston as Jamaica’s capital.

But many readers know the rest of the story. Foreign powers targeted Jamaica and used both political parties to wreck the island. Global geopolitics took its toll on Montego Bay. Consequently, those born after the Beach Boys sang “Jamaica, ooh I wanna take ya/…Key Largo, Montego baby why don’t we go” wondered why anyone would be so thrilled about Jamaica, and Montego Bay in particular. Garrisons, gangs, guns and political goons bred a generation of vipers and the Bay of Lards became a pork barrel with the stench of a hog pen. (The Spaniards had named Montego Bay “Bahia de Manteca”, bay of lards, for its thriving pig and lard industry.) In much the same way the “King’s Town” (Kingston) had become a ghetto of gangsters. Montego Bay reeled from Cold War, drug war, and the current terror war with the concomitant Great Recession. MoBay has done very well amidst great tribulation to remain Jamaica’s tourist mecca, with stiff competition from Ocho Rios. The Greater Montego Bay Redevelopment Committee faces a difficult but not an impossible task. They can still restore Montego Bay’s path of progress.

Additionally, history cries out that if slave Samuel Sharpe could force the hands of freedom, then freedmen in the 21st century can defeat imperialists to make Montego Bay a great city in deeds, not just words. After all, in 1980, parliament simply restored city status to a town which was officially a city 100 years prior. It will take modern Sam Sharpes and Nannys to make MoBay a city of splendour and prosperity. They will have to oppose the takeover of hotels, beaches and other money-making establishments by foreigners and denounce the multiplication of foreign fast food chains in the city. Lots of motor vehicles, skyscrapers, junk food, and spy cameras do not a city make. Let MoBay be MoBay. Stop “foreignising” the damn place. Many things that are North American or European are curses on humanity. Let Jamaicans enjoy their culture and natural resources while visitors respect and share that which is genuinely Jamaican. Keep the tourism dollars in the city, let the people benefit from them, and plan now for the next 50 or 100 years of city growth. With Portmore, Spanish Town and Mandeville each approaching city status there might be no room to expand Kingston and St Andrew. But there is much room to expand Montego Bay and enough time to do it right.

As Jamaica approaches 50 and Montego Bay turns 32, politicians must preserve what’s left of the virginity of MoBay in terms of natural resources, African-Jamaican customs, peacefulness, hospitality and everything that made MoBay great. Clean up the current messes in the city and sanitise the Hip Strip. Expand city boundaries into nearby towns, villages and hamlets. Implement perfect engineering and township development, as agitated perennially by expert Garfield Whittaker. Develop Cornwall county police, education and socioeconomic programmes. Give autonomy to parish and county councils to spend money now being hogged by central government. Promote tourist guides to a Montego Bay city police force. Help citizens of Montego Bay and surrounding neighbourhoods live comfortably to enjoy their homeland as much as the tourists do. Don’t harass the tourists, but for God’s sake never disrespect those who “born yah” or “live yah.” As a lad I often smiled when reciting “Kingston capital Kingston”. Before I die I would love to hear: “Jamaica’s capital Montego Bay.”

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