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A dirty and unkempt Nassau

EDITOR, The Tribune.

Nassau has not been this dirty and unkempt since the first Christie-led government and before that, not since before 1992.

The Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Public Works has thanked the Bahamian people for our patience and for being “tolerable” as he tried to get his ministry ‘back on track’. The DPM says he was busy trying to bring “more transparency, order and accountability in the process”.

Unfortunately for the DPM, residents of New Providence are way past being patient with this government which we do not find tolerable in the least. We do not believe that the DPM or anyone else in his Government has a clue as to the meaning of transparency, order or accountability. We all know that the PLP government is famous for backroom deals, special interests and an “all for me baby” attitude.

It is clear for even the blind to see that this government has been busy firing any and all companies and individuals hired by the last FNM government to keep our road verges, neighbourhood parks and open green spaces clean. It did not occur to them to hire replacements for a seamless transition. Their aim was to fire anyone contracted by the FNM, even if they were PLPs. Well the result is the overgrown filth that we are living in.

No, Mr DPM, we have no interest in tolerating your inefficiency, excuses and incompetence. We find your demonstrated ineffectiveness and lame excuses unacceptable and intolerable.

It’s the same incompetence that caused your ministry to take more than 12 months to repair a small piece of road washed away by Hurricane Sandy down at the Caves. It’s the same incompetence that has stalled the Ministry’s attempt to rebuild the sand dune further along the same roadway. And it’s the same incompetence that prevents you from even now completing two badly needed public restroom facilities at Montagu Beach Park.

Come to think about it, your Ministry has not been able to complete and open the Marsh Harbour Airport Terminal in Abaco or to sign a contract to complete roadwork in your own San Salvador constituency – works that were underway and which your ministry interrupted after the last elections.

We’re nearing 18 months since you took over responsibility for Public Works. Let me just say to the DPM that we would be happy to see the job of keeping Nassau clean and pristine go to someone else who actually has an understanding of the job.

GEOFFREY COOPER

Nassau,

10 October, 2013.


Comments

proudloudandfnm 10 years, 6 months ago

I don't care who it is. I don't care how smart they are. I don't care how old they are or how experienced they are. No one can tell me the FNM and the PLP are the same. NO ONE! The PLP is nothing, they don't try, they never perform. Everything they touch is crap, want proof? Look at Bimini. Crap, bad for the island and doing NOTHING for the people. PLP can't even install runway lights in 12 months!

The PLP are for lack of a better word.... LOUSY. Lousy at everything they do....

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spoitier 10 years, 6 months ago

PLP can't install runway lights in 12 months, and the FNM can't finish a road project in the allotted time. By the way, I travel to Nassau during the FNM administration and it was dirty then.

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ThisIsOurs 10 years, 6 months ago

It's dirtier now...a fact born out by the DPM's need to apologize. I just drove past Montague today and was shocked at how the weeds have grown up by the dock...I don't believe I've seen it in that state for years.

It's not a PLP or an FNM thing the city's been in a steady state of decline for decades. I believe the acceleration started with the phone card vendors, hundreds of clapboard hastily constructed unsightly stalls popped up overnight and gave license to anybody to construct their own stalls for the sale of anything. Too many people in the middle of the road selling whatever. During the last election it became cool to nail at minimum 20 posters to any available tree on island. I wonder if the PM would allow that on his street?

Town Planning needs to take the city in hand, it is dirty too many below code stalls on the side of the road, too many haphazard signs. Signs nailed into the hillside of the highway...was truly shocking the first time I saw it. I hope no one approved that. Signs nailed onto trees and lamp posts, there are laws against that. There's a 2x4 construction in the parking lot of the abandoned city market building on village road, clearly the vendors have grown tired of putting away their illegal stall, they have just left the unsightly mess till the next public holiday. The lady with the dooms day messages is constantly erecting posters at the light on village road and Shirley street, who approved that, again an unsightly mess, you want to reach people for Jesus let them see your good works not the rhetoric.

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ThisIsOurs 10 years, 6 months ago

And the police need to start doing something about how people cross the road. It's called jay walking and it must be illegal. The chances pedestrians take are mind boggling. Maybe human flesh got stronger than steel while I wasn't paying attention. They're now doing this foolishness on the highway,. Even if there are no cars behind you they just can't wait , they cross in front of you, that too makes the city look disorderly. It's like a third world slum with no street signs. Drivers do it too, they inch up on the light like they have ants in their pants, if they deem the wait too long they run the red light, it's a common occurrence, Sundays seem to be a free for all., Patience has suddenly become uncool. These seemingly small infractions give people the impression that law and order mean nothing.

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xtreme2x 10 years, 6 months ago

StrongAMEN...Mr Cooper...Right on the head..

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Colebrooke 10 years, 6 months ago

Blame blame its not making your country any cleaner, the time you take to call names and bring each other down,you'll need to clean the place your selves the garbage had to come from somewhere and who did the Bahamains,the tourist are not blaming the parties they are saying they Bahamains nasty

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carlh57 10 years, 5 months ago

So, what are the Bahamian people doing to clean up their own neighborhoods, roads and empty lots? Always waiting for "someone" else to solve a problem…..I'm ashamed when friends and guests come to visit and we drive through downtown, side roads or neighborhoods. Was just riding along the JFK highway and even though it's been just a few months since completed, it's turning into a pig pen…..like every other part of the island.

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bismark 10 years, 5 months ago

Both administrations are to blame for the dirt and filth we now find ourselves in,but Bahamians need to take more pride in their surroundings and stop being so nasty and waiting for somebody to clean up behind them,i always hear my people complain about how we don't have any beaches,well look around the little that is left for us they are filthy!we have become a nasty lazy bunch of people when I was growing up in the 70s it wasnt this filthy,what people called over the hill was a very clean place,now it is a dump,as well as the rest of Nassau,whenever govt. decides to build a slot of low cost homes in less than five years,it is a ghetto,just look around.............................

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