The Tribune

EDITOR, The Tribune.

This is a plea for the saving of the economic lives of the Bahamian Potters Cay licensed businesses, that sell conch salad, food, and drinks to many visitors and locals alike.

Their very existence is threatened by the heavy handed and mindless reaction to a murder, over which the vendors had no control. To use the Minister of National Security’s own logic, the mass shooting in Montell Heights, “they were not random shootings, the targeted person ran toward a group of people and consequently 14 persons got shot.”

Potters Cay Dock is a not a place where random shootings take place, perpetrated by persons who emerge from cars parked in front of the stalls. You would not plan a drive- by shooting on Potters Cay on a busy night, simply because at all times there is always congested traffic. Many people just drive on to the dock with no intention to stay or spend money; just embracing the spectacle and activity of locals and visitors getting down; it is accepted that traffic moves slowly and you do not hear cars blowing horns in frustration, as you enter or exit the dock no matter how busy. If you want to get to the East quickly, you do not drive through Potters Cay period.

The business at Potters Cay did not develop as a venue accessible to pedestrians only, but will surely become desolate, as it has now, by the new parking rules being mercilessly enforced. I witnessed cars being towed and one distraught vendor offering to, and in effect, “valet park”,my car to get my business on Sunday. It was because of that vendor I promised I would write this letter.

The PLP have already jumped in the fray, but the elections are three years away. Surely my caring FNM government will see the devastation and reverse the policy, they have created, to cause the devastation. I don't recall who said that the vendors should call their patrons to come and spend money; alas business does not work that way. The taxi drivers who bring the tourists are also being frustrated because the customer satisfaction is being diminished.

The police can prevent drive by shootings wherever they have occurred, by simply banning vehicular traffic in those areas, effective but not practical.

There have been murders on Arawak Cay, have patrons been prevented from parking in front of stalls there?

Please Mr National Security Minister, admit there has been an over reaction; the desolation at Potters Cay is there for all to see; so will the restoration with the reversal of the draconian policy now in place.

Please end the needless suffering of our Bahamian Potters Cay vendors.

EDROY DEVEAUX

Nassau,

July 11, 2019.