PRIME Minister Andrew Holness has declared that something has to be done about the unsightliness of some sections of Washington Boulevard, a major gateway into the Corporate Area.

Addressing the ground-breaking ceremony for a multi-use park in Maverley in St Andrew on Tuesday, Holness decried the look of Washington Boulevard.

“I am speaking to the residents who live along Washington Boulevard. I don’t think we can say that it gives us pride when you look to the left and to the right upon entering the city coming from Mandela Highway. Certainly as you come off the overpass, coming onto Washington Boulevard and you look to your left at New Haven, that is not what you want to see greet you as you enter the city.

“As you drive along, you see all kinds of operations that really should be back office operations, like garages and all kinds of other operations which interfere with the free flow of traffic. When I used to leave Spanish Town to take the bus to The University of the West Indies, I always looked along the side of the road and wondered: Will this ever change and will the country ever look structured? Now that I am prime minister, yes, it will change,” declared Holness.

He said a part of the change will be a total revamp of Washington Boulevard and adjoining thoroughfares, including Spanish Town Road, which people use to enter the Corporate Area.

“The plan is to do a total re-engineering and redesign of Washington Boulevard as the entrance to the city and not just Washington Boulevard, but as you head down Spanish Town Road to meet up back with the development that we have done in the Three Miles area. Those two corridors have to be developed. The re-engineering and redesign is not only for efficiency of traffic but also aesthetics,” Holness said, signalling all intentions to turn Washington Boulevard into “a true boulevard”.

Holness pointed out that when he travels overseas and gets onto main thoroughfares that lead into a city, “it is deliberately beautiful” due to those governments spending time and effort to make a statement to citizens and visitors alike.

“No matter what stress they are going through, no matter how they feel about the situation in their home town, when they hit their capital city and get onto boulevards and promenades they feel a sense of pride. For decades, we have lost in Government the belief that building proper infrastructure can uplift people’s pride and how they feel about themselves. Governments have been afraid to tackle the social issues that have emerged as a result of the breakdown in good governance and deterioration in the standard of infrastructure.”

Holness said politicians must be strong to withstand threats of people switching allegiance because they wish for things to remain as they are.

“When a man sets up a garage and him tell you seh him nah vote fi you if you trouble him garage, politicians will say they can’t be bothered with that. That is what has crippled us, this false notion that if we do something to improve the quality of infrastructure and life, but it means that there has to be change in how things happen, you then face this false criticism that what you are doing is affecting the poor negatively.

“What you are actually doing is something that is going to uplift the poor. The politics of poverty, using this claim that government action is inimical to the poor, is the very thing that has been destructive to the poor. I am saying to the poor people of this community that things can’t stay the same and it is when they stay the same that you will remain poor. It is in change that there is a possibility of uplifting yourself out of poverty,” declared Holness.