EDITOR, The Tribune

My late uncle Geoffrey had a marvellous, if somewhat convoluted, way of setting various events in motion, the simplest of which might be to go home from a late night party, whereupon he might say to his wife: “Darling, why don’t we commence, to begin, to prepare, to get ready to go home?

And so might it be said that Dr Minnis today, Sunday, April 26, by the appointment of an “Economic Recovery Committee”, is commencing to begin to prepare to get ready for the long road to economic recovery for the Bahamas.

It is perhaps apropos then that I might voice some of my own thoughts, on what we historically have done right, and what in retrospect was less than advantageous to us economically.

Downtown Nassau, (between George Street and Victoria Avenue) has historically been the economic centre and life- blood of New Providence, if not the Bahamas. From bootlegging times (1920-1932) to the early days of Tourism, Downtown Nassau has been the epicentre of life in the Bahamas. The four pillars of that life might be the Government, the Judiciary, Financial Services, and Tourism. Included in that mix, would be the Out Island Produce and Fish Market on Woodes Rodgers Wharf and the Straw Market further west. Bay Street with its quaint little buildings, converted to retail shops, gave an old world charm and flavour to “Little Nassau”.

One could be forgiven for asking what happened of course, but like a cancer metastasizing through the body, one thing has led to another, and Downtown Nassau was on the verge of collapsing, even before the Corona Virus took everything down.

Over the years, somehow we became caught up in a “numbers” game. Not Web Shop Numbers, but tourism numbers, culminating this year with our Minister gallantly declaring that “we had recorded seven million tourists last year”. As the Cruise Industry became more and more competitive, each cruise line began a spiral cutting of its cruise fares. This widened the market for its cruises, but bargain basement passengers had nothing to leave behind when the ship pulled out. So fierce was our love of numbers that the cruise lines felt, and became, empowered to dictate their needs and greeds to us. No longer were they prepared to close their on board shops and bars while in port, “or else they would not bring their millions of passengers here”. Since we are now at “Ground Zero” maybe this is a good time to pull the main sheet in and tell them how it has to be going forward. Close your Shops and Casinos while you are in the Port. If guests don’t get off the ship add a tax that the ship can pay or assess on the passengers. Their choice. And our hotels too, notwithstanding the huge encouragement which we happily lavish on them just for being a hotel, do not want their guests leaving their hotel properties and spending their money anywhere else. Nassau was far too dangerous to venture out they’d say. This, notwithstanding the thousands of cruise passengers milling about all day long.

And as the legal fraternity gravitated over the years from being barristers to becoming solicitors, many of these firms looked west to the honey pots of Lyford Cay, Albany, and Old Fort Bay. Some, of course, have hedged their bets with one foot still in town, but the economic fallout has definitely been felt. This has left a glut now of empty office space, much of which has been taken up as Government Office space and unfortunately a lot has been taken up for Criminal Courts and all of the attendant dangerous activity that that entails.

Governments too I think, for years and years now, have had to weigh the benefits of good public transportation, against the huge benefits of import duties on motor vehicles. Yes, we do have a very narrowly focused Jitney service, but too narrowly focused to be of much good to a broader population, particularly if it were to cater to visitors.

All of that is to say, without sounding too “Trumpian”, would this not be a good time to make the Bahamas first, to benefit from future Tourism. Bay Street is going to be empty for some months to come, and maybe now is the time to consider some much needed change to take it off life-support. There must be a million plans on as many shelves, of what could be done, or what might be good to do, but we need to create some incentive to share the hotel guests with the rest of the country. Maybe, the retail branch shops in the hotels could be phased, or regulated, out. I have no doubt that the foreign owned hotels can find alternate purposes for these shop spaces. I see no benefit to the Bahamas from foreign real estate landlords – NONE.

In other countries they have Park and Ride Options and we can do it here too. Take parking of Bay Street completely, and make it two lanes east bound only, with one for normal vehicular traffic and another for downtown commuter buses. Maybe reinforce it by putting a planted meridian down the middle, with native trees and shrubs. Shirley Street can be the West Bound route, similarly structured. Create organized, paid, secured, parking facilities at Clifford Park and Malcolm Park or some other large parking area, with scheduled and frequent buses to take people into town and move them around. No side road vehicular traffic, just one big loop between Mackey Street and Chippingham.

And maybe now is the time to bring the boundary of the Over the Hill tax incentives from Gregory Arch all the way out to the waterfront.

At the end of the day the ONLY number we as a people should be interested in are the dollars that our guests leave with us.

BRUCE G. RAINE

Nassau

April 26, 2010