No future for depressed communities

Athaliah Reynolds, Gleaner Writer

A FEW of the familiar areas that make up the St. Andrew Western constituency are Duhaney Park, Seaview Gardens and Waterhouse.

While there are developed areas with a concentration of businesses within the constituency, there are others, described as depressed communities.

The main concerns of these communities are issues of education, job opportunities, crime and poor roads.

A tour through sections of Seaview Gardens highlighted a number of the residents' concerns; poor road conditions was one such complaint.

Pothole problem

Young (left) andHylton (right)

Huge potholes, which the residents attempted to fill with patches of cement, were quite evident.

"Trus' mi di roads dem bad. Most man 'fraid fi drive dem car tru dem place here," said one resident of Seaview Gardens.

"We need jobs too, most a the youths dem leave school and nuh have nutten fi do and we have a serious sewage problem, a night time a bare mosquito a kill wi."

Individuals living in parts of Waterhouse and Duhaney Park, located off the Washington Boulevard, echoed the cries of those in other areas of the constituency.

"The young people dem need something to do," a resident from Waterhouse said.

"We need a community centre with good sporting and educational programmes that a go work towards uplifting the youths," he added.

An elderly resident in the same community also voiced her concern for the large number of children living in the area who were not attending school.

"Most a these little boys and girls yuh see running around the place don't go school. Dem go one day and cyaan go back because dem parents cyaan afford fi sen dem," she said.

Meanwhile, Brooks Avenue and Sherlock Crescent in Duhaney Park and sections of Waterhouse have, for years, been plagued by gang warfare, a situation also blamed on the lack of proper social and educational programmes.

However, in recent times, there has been a sense of calm in these communities, which is attributed to good working relations between the residents and the police.

With 24,471 registered voters, the critical question is, what are the issues that will determine, who triumphs at the polls when the People's National Party's Anthony Hylton and the Jamaica Labour Party's Joyce Young meet on September 3?

athaliah.reynolds@gleanerjm.com