Afra Raymond: PoS needs affordable housing

This is the second part of a three-part series looking at the Port of Spain revitalisation project, its progress and how some in the business, building and construction industries feel about it as it moves along. The Prime Minister launched the project in 2020 and aims to establish the city as a leading place for commerce, entertainment and culture. One of its major aims is to also increase the numbers of people living in the city which dwindled over decades. The first part appeared on May 25.

While the revitalisation of Port of Spain continues, and the Downtown Owners and Merchants Association (DOMA) is happy for the work, it said it is concerned the revitalisation cannot be accomplished with the plans it is aware of.

In 2020, the Prime Minister announced plans to revitalise the city, saying it had fallen into urban decay. He listed a series of projects and ways to do this, among them constructing residential/commercial housing in the city and developing City Gate.

In February the Government announced headway was being made with the overall project. Newsday spoke to DOMA and to chartered surveyor and managing director of Raymond and Pierre Afra Raymond about the update.

The association said it did not want its opinions to be seen as negative, but its general reaction is that the revitalisation required basic restructuring of city services and “a strategy related to building from the bottom up as opposed to the proposal to revitalise from the top down.”

Port of Spain mayor Joel Martinez, in an earlier interview, said there were fewer and fewer reports of incidents of crime in the city and he felt people would be willing to move to Port of Spain.

But the association said to have people live there, the country had to be sure the city is safe in the daytime and potential residents will feel safe at night.

DOMA said, “Residential living in downtown Port of Spain requires that there will be businesses willing to stay open at night such as restaurants and other types of entertainment and hospitality services.

“We are not sure that a city which is unsafe during the day could be considered safe at night.

"Other issues related to homelessness, cleanliness, surface flooding, uncontrolled street vending, burglaries and assault must be resolved during the day for residential prospects to be viable at night.”

Martinez said there were plans in place for Ariapita Avenue, such as recladding the pavement and making parts of it colourful.

DOMA said plans for the avenue needed “intense input” from major stakeholders, especially residents and businesses.

Public consultations on changes to the avenue were held last year.

As for the pedestrianisation of any part of the city, the association said those “flirting” with the idea need to recognise that closing any major traffic artery will have a negative effect on the existing road network, which is already close to capacity.

“A comprehensive traffic plan with imaginative features for parking and traffic directional flow will be required before any possibility of pedestrianisation can be envisaged.

“The likelihood of success without stakeholder input is very slim and like other plans which have been implemented without stakeholder participation will probably lead to dissatisfaction and failure,” it added.

The association said it was ready, willing and open to provide its input and looked forward to doing basics well, such as security, parking, homelessness, drainage and flooding, cleanliness and littering issues, before plans for expensive new buildings were made.

None of the decision-makers in the revitalisation project live in the city except Dr Rowley, “who by the terms of his office lives in St Ann’s,” Raymond said.

Martinez, who grew up on Cornelio Street, Woodbrook and now lives in Moka, Maraval, was making declarations about people coming back to live in the city. Raymond asked what it would take for Martinez himself to leave Moka and return to Port of Spain proper.

“That question is not an attempt to personalise a serious public policy issue, it is in fact at the heart of this series of interlinked issues,” he said.

In a 2016 article on his website at afraraymond.net, he showed the population decline in the city, describing it as severely depopulated. He said the city had a population of 94,000 in 1960, which dwindled to 37,000 in 2011.

A “notable effort at large-scale repopulation was the One Woodbrook Place development near to Roxy roundabout at the western end of Tragarete Road.

"This was a high-end comprehensive project of 419 apartments with shops, restaurants, offices and cinema. With multi-million-dollar price tags for its apartments, that project caters for a high-income group and is therefore unlikely to house much more than 1200 residents when all those homes are occupied,” he wrote.

In his recent interview he said One Woodbrook was never fully occupied and where did that leave TT.

In 2016 Raymond suggested the city needed high-density, affordable rented housing to increase the numbers of working people who live there, to avoid further decline.

He also suggested it should be made mandatory for new projects built on prime sites to indicate that they are net earners of foreign exchange. This would eliminate more shopping malls and foreign restaurant franchises among other things, he added.

Raymond said TT’s citizens had made new, non-Port of Spain homes for themselves and given the limited success of One Woodbrook Place, he asked what combination of design, pricing or location would be required for people to live in Port of Spain again.

“If we are unable to conjure answers to that sobering, complex question, the repopulation agenda has to switch focus to look at affordable housing and decide how that can be expanded under the current paradigm,” Raymond said.

Continues next week