EDITOR, The Tribune

As The Bahamas struggles to come to the reality of its challenging infrastructure, Family Island airports, and many modern challenges of a young nation.

Chester Cooper, Minister of Tourism, Investment and Aviation, has once again taken the lead in the transformation of what used to be The World Famous Downtown Bay Street.

Once known to the world for its elite branded shops, 24 hour entertainment, upscale restaurants from around the world, the renowned tourist destination second to none, and the economic shopping hub for locals and visitors during the heyday of our colonial past.

The Renaissance of Bay Street has begun.

In his remarkable successful career from Forbes Hill, Exuma, to the top of the corporate ladder, Mr Cooper has embarked on a well-planned, bold, ambitious strategic surgical transformation of the heart of our tourist reality.

The challenge before him will put him on a “national battlefield” far beyond any corporate boardroom which he has conquered successfully.

The internal and external stakeholders coupled with “the political conch salad” of Bay Street will require an individual that Rudyard Kipling wrote about in his poem “If“.

Chester Cooper will have to “keep his head about him while others may lose their heads and blaming it on him, he will have to walk with kings, but never lose the common touch”.

He will face his greatest challenge as a politician and a Bahamian.

Recreating and modernising the eastern side of downtown will be like removing a patient from the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) of a hospital, and rushing that patient into the Emergency Operating Theatre to perform the greatest successful surgery in this modern Bahamas.

The announcement to finally clean up Bay Street came with a breath of fresh air, but with mounting national scepticism.

Many Bahamians have complained about the unsightly deteriorating buildings, the continuous unfortunate flooding, the harassment of our guests, our rude taxi drivers fighting in front of tourists, and the rodents that seem to have taken over. The same applies to the Junkanoo Beach and Arawak Cay areas.

As many Bahamians saw the transformation of the once quaint pleasant atmosphere of Arawak Cay destroyed, dominated by unsightly commercial boat repair shops, many decorated and some unregulated down home eateries known as “The Fish Fry” popping up, some sadly with extremely unsanitary conditions, and finally, a national container port that transformed the entire tourist experience into a chaotic vehicular nightmare of unforgiving traffic, dust, loud vehicular noise, truckers dominating the road lanes, and the accelerated potential for several dangerous vehicular accidents on a daily basis.

The welcome and massive removal of condemned structures, the replacement of unsightly deteriorating and dilapidated buildings, the creation of a safe atmosphere for both tourists and locals will be the most extremely challenging, but inviting, and a refreshing renaissance since the visionary spirit and implementation of the tourism model we still use today created by the late Sir Stafford Sands, improved by Clement Maynard and maintained by many ministers that followed.

The time has come for a young visionary to lead this modern change without fear or favour.

To simply do what is right, without compromising what is in the best interest of our country.

The Davis administration without question has put the right minister for this reason, and for this season to bring The Bay Street Renaissance to reality.

All Bahamians should be in support of this most needed infrastructure restoration project and the rebranding of Bay Street.

We encourage Minister Cooper and his team to make the difference. Minister Cooper will have the support of The Bahamian people, because we all want to make it truly and unconditionally, “Better in The Bahamas” for future generations to come.

Anthony U Bostwick

Nassau,

August 3, 2023