MONTEGO BAY, St James — Montego Bay Mayor Richard Vernon has hit out at critics who have chided him for presiding over a dirty city.

“Let me tell you something, there is no major town or city in Jamaica that is cleaner than Montego Bay right now. I dare anybody to go ahead and do their research, take their cameras, drive around the entire country and check every major city and town in Jamaica. None can be compared to Montego Bay right now,” he declared Thursday, during the regular monthly meeting of the St James Municipal Corporation.

His remarks came in the wake of comments made by Dr Andre Haughton of the People’s National Party (PNP) who told the mayor that, instead of removing election campaign signs, Vernon should focus on cleaning up the city.

“We live in a dirty city and instead of cleaning the city and evolving the place, the mayor is concerned about tearing down my posters because the JLP (Jamaica Labour Party) sees the People’s National Party and myself as a threat to them and their dominance in Montego Bay,” Haughton had said during a meeting in early May.

While he did not mention Haughton by name, the mayor made it clear Thursday that these sorts of remarks were causing more harm than good.

“When you come and you describe our city as dirty, nasty, the worst place in Latin America and the Caribbean, when you come and you say that this is no resort city, it is this and it is that, all the negative things that can be said about the city of Montego Bay, who do you think you are hurting?” he decried.

Vernon said hard-working individuals who continue to work and support the city and the parish as a whole would be negatively impacted by such utterances. According to the mayor, individuals such as taxi operators, craft vendors, and others now face uncertain times because of the negative comments.

“Because of your description of Montego Bay, they find it harder to do business because people feel as if downtown is a nasty, hot mess. It is not!” he insisted.

“Who do you think you are hurting? Then you have the ambition of wanting to represent some sections of this city,” Vernon scolded.

The mayor went on to highlight a number of positives the city and the parish have been experiencing in stark contrast to the comments that have been made in recent times.

“Montego Bay has less than eight murders per 100,000 people; a lot of credit to the police,” he declared.

He also addressed what he said were remarks made about Montego Bay’s shortcomings as a resort city, and rattled off data, including the more than one million visitors the city hosts each year in addition to being the transit point for more than 70 per cent of visitors to the island, plus other benefits.

“What them talking about? Montego Bay has 30 per cent of all rooms in the country; Montego Bay has the largest airport in the English-speaking Caribbean! What are they talking about, what do they know about Montego Bay? They don’t know nothing about Montego Bay. Stay in your lane!” he chided.

Vernon pointed out that the critical comments had come at a time when Montego Bay continues to see a level of investor confidence not seen anywhere else in the country.

“You’re disrespecting the persons who see Montego Bay as a viable business option to invest, but my director of planning is right here and he can tell you: billions on top of billions of investments coming into our commercial districts in the next five years, no other municipality [has that],” he said.

The mayor also spoke of projects planned to further enhance the western city, including work on the fountain at historic Sam Sharpe Square, the heart of Montego Bay; improvements to roads, sewerage, and more.

He also used the opportunity to call out one naysayer who he said has sought to take credit for work he has done through the Bloomberg project.

“I don’t usually take credit but I speak about it in general. I brought back to Jamaica over $20 million to invest in youth projects and I see some persons posing up on youth projects talking about how they modernising community centre. Rubbish!” Vernon declared.

“That came through the Mayor’s Bloomberg initiative,” he added, accusing the person of plagiarism to much chuckles from his side of the political aisle.