West Bay begs bar owner not to dredge Barkers
Barkers National Park coastline
(CNS): Emotions ran high at a public meeting in West Bay on Tuesday, when district residents met with the owner of Calico Jack’s beach bar and begged him to pull his application to dredge an area in Barkers that would remove more than four acres of turtle grass. Many of the people who attended told Handel Whittaker that they didn’t necessarily object to his bar being in Barkers but the environmental damage regarding the grass caused real concern. But the bar owner, who is being turfed out of his current spot on Seven Mile Beach by his landlord, Dart, said the removal of the grass was essential to the project.
At the second district meeting about the issue, which has seen West Bay unite in their objection to the project, dozens of local people came out to hear what Whittaker had to say and express their concerns.
However, once again there was a notable absence of the district’s political leaders, who, with the exception of Bernie Bush, have made almost no public comment about this project.
Nevertheless, it was Whittaker that the residents had come to hear. As he addressed the audience, he stressed that the goal was to recreate the experience of Seven Mile Beach at the location in Barkers and the dredging of the turtle grass was therefore necessary.
Without the removal of the sea grass, “it won’t be feasible”, he said. “We are in the tourism business and this is a tourism facility… When people come here on ships they want to swim in crystal clear water,” Whittaker told the meeting, as a he spoke about creating a Rum Point-type resort location.
Even after residents pointed out the obvious, that Barkers was not Seven Mile Beach and was a unique beach habitat that they wanted to preserve in that natural state, he refused to reconsider withdrawing the coastal works application to remove the sea grass. He said it was now down to the Department of Environment and government whether or not the project went ahead.
The audience, however, disagreed.
“Caymanian to Caymanian, I am begging you not to do it,” Alice Mae Coe, a long-time district activist over beach access rights, urged Whittaker, as she warned about the piecemeal encroachment over the years of development all over Cayman. She said Barkers would be no different once it started.
Coe pointed out that the DoE is not the decision maker in this and all the department can do is offer advice to Cabinet. But she asked rhetorically if anyone could think of a time when, despite the DoE urging against coastal development, Cabinet had ever listened.
While emotions ran high, tempers were calm, with audience members seeming to sympathise with Whittaker’s predicament over losing his current location. They directed their anger towards the Dart corporation and insisted that the bar owner was being manipulated by the developer.
Many West Bayers have real concerns that this is the first effort by the islands’ most powerful investor to set the precedent and begin developing the significant amount of land that the group owns in the Barkers area. Former political candidates and local business owners, Mervin Smith and Paul Rivers, as well as many other members of the West Bay community all warned Whittaker that he was a tool in the developer’s long-term broader plans, which began with his removal from Seven Mile Beach.
Rivers said he believed Dart was using Caymanians to “do its dirty work”. He said Whittaker was doing business with “very shady people”. Accusing the developer of stealing the Caymanian identity, he added, “You just don’t realise what they are doing to you.”
Whittaker repeatedly denied that he was being manipulated or used by Dart, insisting that this was a business proposition. He said that with the pending expiration of his lease, he had approached Dart — not the other way around — about going to Barkers. It was then, he said, that the Dart representatives became enthusiastic about the idea.
Although the role of the developer in this project was never far from the surface, the environmental damage that the project poses was at the forefront of the concerns. Laura Egglishaw, who is organising the grassroots campaign to prevent the dredging of the turtle grass, was keen to emphasise that the reason for the meeting and the overall objections at the heart of the campaign is the threat to the marine environment posed by that removal.
It was also the main issue for several young West Bayers who attended the meeting and spoke eloquently about the habitat threats and their concerns about the implications, especially as the project was designed to cater to cruise tourists, who spend only a fraction of the money spent by overnight guests that visit Cayman.
Although Whittaker insisted that he was not seeking to destroy the environment at Barkers and that the development would be done in such a way as to barely impact it, he seemed entirely unaware of the extent of the threat to the wider marine habitat by the proposed dredging of 180,000 sq.ft of sea grass.
Audience members pointed to the area as a marine nursery for reef fish, as well as conch and lobster, its importance in preserving the sand on the beach, the protection it offers from storm surge and other major environmental, as well as aesthetic and cultural, concerns. Throughout the meeting the audience demonstrated the growing awareness now in Cayman of the need to take much greater action to protect the environment, as their politicians let them down in this regard.
They were worried not just about what would be removed but what the development would bring. The amount of sunscreen going into the marine habitat from as many as 500 people per day at the site and an influx of single-use plastics were just some of them. Garbage in general was raised by one of the youngest audience members, a member of the Girls Brigade, who clearly articulated the problem of garbage going into the ocean and ruining the beach.
Despite Whittaker’s protestations about preventing garbage, the young girl spoke from experience when she pointed out how much garbage she and her friends in the Girls Brigade regularly collect from tourist beach spots during weekend clean-ups.
While Whittaker answered many questions from the concerned audience, he ultimately failed to convince West Bayers to support his endeavours and was unable to alleviate any of their concerns.
He admitted that he could not say for sure how his guests would be coming to the location and said he had nothing in writing to guarantee that visitors from the cruise ships would come to the new site so far from the central Seven Mile Beach tourist district, which would in itself pose new challenges for him.
Whittaker was also unable to say why Dart had not offered him a more appropriate new location somewhere else along Seven Mile Beach, where the group now has considerable land holdings, such as the old Victoria House site.
See the documents on the proposed Barkers development in the CNS Library
Category: development, Local News, Marine Environment, Science & Nature
75% of West Bayers have never been to Barkers. 95% of Caymanians have never been to Barkers. 80% of those Caymanians that have been to Barkers more than once, left their garbage there. 95% of those that left their garbage left a used condom and the wrapper.
How do you know? Is it because you’ve never been? Go each weekend and go at Easter
I believe that land ownership end at the water’s edge. Once you get into the water, it is owned or held in trust by the Crown for the people. Therefore, if the people – who the politicians are supposed to represent – do not want the dredging to take place, that should be the end of the question.
Once you create the swimming area, the next thing will be hotels and other infrastructure. They cannot operate on ship tourists alone.
To Handel: have you considered ecotourism? Surely a smart business man like you can a find an angle that works.
Or Camana Bay
If anyone was in doubt about the ownership of a local newspaper, read today’s Editorial. Wow. And it misses the entire point also, which is not an opposition based on blind anti-Dart or anti-Development causes it’s simply that we want to keep one area free and clear for the future generations. If Dart is such an environmentalist (the hypocrisy as to how he made his money originally is staggering btw), he shouldnt have any qualms about simply locking it all down with CIG and everyone agreeing, no Dev ever in Barkers from here on out…Dart has most of the cards in this, he could easily negotiate terms on other stuff in lieu of his ‘losses’ in Barkers. This is the feather that broke the camels back. Ken should stop hiding behind Handel (the irony when the Editorial repeatedly goes after anonymous bloggers whilst they voice such support for the most secretive man on the planet!!!!!) and just come to the table, look for stuff elsewhere, and work a deal with CIG and for the future of our children and grandchildren.
Ken isn’t hiding behind Handel. Read the editorial again. Here is the sentence you should be looking for:
Dart hopes to remove sea-grass beds from the area and put in a dock to allow for water sports, swimming and snorkeling.
Dart hopes to remove sea-grass beds from the area and put in a dock to allow for water sports, swimming and snorkeling.
Dart hopes to remove sea-grass beds from the area and put in a dock to allow for water sports, swimming and snorkeling.
Dart hopes to remove sea-grass beds from the area and put in a dock to allow for water sports, swimming and snorkeling.
Yeah, Dart behind all this but don’t forget Mac’s proposal for a cruise tendering dock in West Bay to go along with the Georgetown dock. Look to your own politicians West Bayers.
Seems to me that Rum Point operates just perfectly and very successfully with patches of, and in some cases large patches of, sea grass with a bar right on land. Build the bar, but seriously the ocean doesn’t belong to any of us, Caymanian or Expat, it’s just on loan from future generations. How do we want to hand it back? Full of sand and no natural sea life, but an amazing bar on land near by or exactly as it was intended to be as an odyssey of marine life? Cayman goes to great lengths to protect the turtles, conch, lobster, star fish and coral though seasons and reporting bleaching, fines for destroying and so forth so why would we be removing the grass that protects and creates an environment for these very creatures to thrive?
Ken Dart is governing Cayman. He already owns the hearts of the politicians and his people sit on our boards; he has generated jobs for thousands of local workers; is the biggest landowner in Cayman; owns all the best beaches; owns tracts of GT commercial buildings and land; controls the development of the country’s modern new capital, Camana Bay; controls the commercial lease and rental market; is the owner and creator of all top class entertainment, controls the hotel market; controls the future of the major destinations for the majority of tourists; controls wholesale and retail beverage outlets: effectively controls retail food businesses; funds local businesses; controls the roads, tunnels and some of the air space; heavily supports charities; has created school facilities; built first class sports facilities and recreational facilities. He is probably feeding you and your family today. He does all of this with his own money and is allowed to do so as an uncontrolled gargantuan monopoly; he will decide whether the turtle grass will survive; he will also decide which Caymanians he will enrich by buying their businesses from him.
Does that make him good or bad for Cayman?
Dart may own and control all of that but he can never own the Queen’s Bottom upon which the turtle grass grows. He needs to have respect for past, present and future generations. We need not develop EVERY inch of land on this finite rock. If he has no respect for the people of Cayman or her environment then he’s not good for Cayman.
Everyone’s talking about “recreating the SMB experience” or “recreating the Rum Point experience”….WHY!?!
We still have those 2 very distinct beaches which offer very different experiences.
But you know what we also have… THE BARKERS EXPERIENCE. Which is not broken. It has given WB’ers and all visitors from other districts its unique environment and experience for generations and NO ONE should be allowed to barge in and disrupt that. It is not a waste of space as another poster ignorantly stated. No development is perfectly acceptable when you have such a beautiful and natural environment and atmosphere.
Stay away Dart! And Handel feel free to take your dump bar to NS where you come from and let your own people experience it. WB doesn’t want it and we will not let you rest easy if you go against the wishes of the people of our district.
Dredge, did, build it already. I can’t wait. Take my little boat and row over there for the afternoons. I love it. I’m all for it. Barkers is currently a waste of space.
They can build all they want . . . someone will just burn it down.
Go check the records and see how long the piece of land in question has been in the same ownership. I can assure you it’s a hell of a lot longer than 4 years.
poor Cayman and Caymanians! pretty soon we are going to have nothing left to call our own. and these legislators don’t have a clue or give a dam.
too much progress is just as bad as not enough. can we reach a happy medium soon and stop the destruction of every thins we call dear to us.
Dart is simply setting up a Caymanian entrepreneur to secure this project and by the time Handel clears the first line of turtle grass Dart will oust him again and take over the new establishment… wait for it.
Dart is a Caymanian entrepreneur.
Dart is an American born businessman who renounced his citizenship and after failed attempts to domicile elsewhere, settled in the Cayman Islands and was granted status. Far from just being an “entrepreneur “ or caymanian.
Nobody said you had to like it but you can’t even handle the truth.
Whatever Dart is, you’re the opposit in every way.
Why is it they always want to remove ? Why not replace the sand behind Tiki Beach and add sand in Barkers . Add enough so that you can walk out 20-25 yards . Oh and by the way I’m not talking out my ass. I know what the beach used to be .
So instead of dredging the turtle grass, cover it over with sand instead?
I find it so insulting how some think that we are all stupid and can’t see through it that Dart is behind it and Whittaker is just fronting for him. Unfortunately, our Government has allowed Dart to manipulate everyone for too long so the horses have left the gate and it will be challenging to catch them
A law should have been passed long ago to avoid from any one ultimate beneficial owner to own more than a certain percentage of land/property on Island……….but that would have not worked well for some greedy families who were eager to cash in so that their kids and grandkids could squander the cash
@ 9:23 If memory serves I believe there is although I can say I don’t know how much that amount is.. The question is though is it being enforced or even monitored in this case.
that be why so many different entities own all the stuff…high paid lawyers hiding ownership to circumvent local rules….if we moan about that, we moan about offshore finance as a whole!
This is only the leading edge of the planned development of the Barkers area for cruise ships.
3:03 That is the whole point that people seem to want to forget! We already have a 7-mile beach, and you all already sold it to hotels and foreigners. We had rum point if it is so great why do people come in their boat? You didn’t want Caymanians on it. When Caymanians went on the free public beach most made it full of trash. Foreigners had to clean it. Then the price went up so high you couldn’t afford it. Then the cycle continues too much noise near hotels and condos. Nobody wants to hear that either. Remember when Handel use to manage Le Club, remember when the live bands, the three bars, the Sunday barbeque? We had a wonderful time back then, didn’t we? For a path of 300 ft of turtle grass, you are trying to give it to Dart again!! What a bunch of spiteful people.
So Bernie is the only one turning up at these meetings- the other mlas in west bay in government have not! Smells like a deal has been done! Why has Bernie fallen out wiv Mckeeva .
This is a friggin’ bar. You’re going to dredge up turtle grass for a BAR?
Dear Cayman,
Section 70 of The Cayman Islands Constitution 2009 is the only true and untouchable tool in the battle to save our environment and culturally significant heritage sites.
We are on the cusp of the 1st ever successful People’s Initiated Referendum with the ongoing petition for a Cruise Port Referendum.
(This is despite the number of challenges which include a 6,000-strong (out of 20,000 eligible voters) block of civil servants, many of whom want to but are too terrified to sign.)
Neglect; your asinine faith in your elected officials, hope for integrity of local developers, supposed remit of the relevant boards and authorities – and place your energy behind the most important and powerful document in and of the Cayman Islands – our constitution.
Let us finally send a strong message to our government, the Governor, the UK, unscrupulous developers, and greedy families that some things are simply not up for sale.
Otherwise, all of this is nothing but temporarily uncomfortable rhetoric through which those that stand to gain economically are more than happy to grin and bear until the fever subsides.
– Whodatis
#signthepetition
#section70
#talkischeap
#constitution
#shameoncig
Why not relocate to the Camana Bay island a recreate seven mile beach there? Surely with the Capital Mr. Dart has and the Engineers at his finger tips he can create that experience. At minimum we are aware no turtles nests would be disturbed or their existing breeding grounds would not be impacted by the 500 tourists that would visit there per day? Also what happens when the lease is up again?
Hello DART and Anyone Else wanting to remove Mangroves, Seagrass and Bedrock,
There is a reason why there’s a beach, vegetation or anything else on said coastline. Funnily enough its because of the Mangroves, Seagrass and Bedrock and there is no legit study on plant earth that would say otherwise than removing that will remove said coast.
We tired of the fu**ry and unnah taking us all for fool.
Memba we told unnah that.
Bullet
So, is all this F**ery going to start a war or not? Enquiring minds want to know.
No. Being a furry is just a harmless hobby.
Sea grass is also attacht to bed rocks on the sea floor. The sea grass is too ungly for these developers let’s remove it. Tomorrow we will remove the rocks too.
We forget this developer was kicked out of from other places for trying to do the same thing. .
Dart realty are masters of pretense . It is insulting how they take us all for fools.
They just want to have this beach cleared for the next hotel project, and are using Handel and others as local pawns to justify this.
You are fools!! Look at Grand Cayman!
The Barkers access road is in a terrible a state, so it would have to be repaired then blacktopped. Thus it would go on, more intrusion, more traffic and further degradation of a once pristine natural gem.
I’m surprised that since the destruction of the Seagrass will directly affect the reef in the long term, the dive industry is not up in arms about it. What is the point of a Marine Park or a Replenishment Zone, if as soon as it becomes inconvenient, anyone can have the restrictions removed?
Those wise Caymanians who thirty years ago foresaw the pressures of today and pushed through the marine protections against great opposition, would be saddened and dismayed that anyone now would even consider sweeping them away. Those who are pushing for it make me deeply saddened and ashamed, not least because of the disrespect being shown to the true statesmen of Cayman’s past, who sometimes make us look so little by comparison.
Why didn’t people who owned the beach sell it? So, really, they were not any different than all the other investors including Dart. Why are people complaining about opening up a small section of beach grass? Tourists will not be the only people to enjoy the beach, locals and residents will too. To achieve more protection for the environment really means to go back in time. Everybody needs to leave, pure any takers? It would be nice to sit in a beach chair drinking a beer or a mudslide. Does everybody own a boat to go to Rum point every Sunday? Why do our own Caymanians continuously try to stop our people? We all know DOE made a claim we have to protect everything on the sea and the land. But is it realistic?
Look at all the dredging that happened in the sound. Are we not seeing more turtles laying eggs on the beaches around the whole island? What about starfish point? Is that a new tourist attraction? Come on now look at the beach, how many turtles laid eggs on the beach? If they did people would have taken them home and cooked them. Right? We all know that would happen.
Please just stay home to soak your brain in alcohol. When you stop that for say, a year, come back and expess your opinion.
Nobody sold the abutting long-designated marine park he desires to trespass-in and desecrate for his own profit. It seems we are blind and deaf to the physical beach rock removal that is implied, the ammonia and sunscreen chemical changes from wading/drinking human traffic, boat fuel and plastic cups that then follow…that’s a hard no from this Caymanian.
If Dart gets this through it’ll be both Starfish Point, Barefoot Beach and Spotters.
This must not be allowed.
Funny you should mention Victoria House. Remember when Dart offered that to Government? Those were the days.
I live next to this land. I would not want these cruise ship passengers, chairs and full moon parties on it. That’s why we objected to this.
I object to your objection.
I will say one thing for Dart, he is not a convicted money launderer.
Not convincted.
Nor tried, nor accused.
Neither is mac bush. So what.
Sure… but which of his hundreds of nominee holding companies does he own this parcel in the name of? Obscuring ownership on land-banked assets is the name of the game with a 100 year plan. One day there will be a bill assigned to those industrialists who played a role in profiting from the poisoning of the planet. That’s why he’s land-banking the money, in Cayman, Florida, etc. Like a squirrel hides acorns.
Pretty sure that Cayman law requires the display of trade and business licenses. Maybe stop by their offices and have a look see?
Handel can say whatever he wants, all he wants…nobody’s gonna believe it’s not Dart, and none of us believe that this is the beginning and end of all and any development in Barker’s should this go thru.
Dart has so much land in Camana Bay, they could create a fabulous beach and bar experience right there…..or on the Hyatt property…or on the Calico Jacks property (!!)…or on the Royal Palms property….or on the Tiki Beach property….or next to Dart’s own house….or…or…or
but no…instead, we must build on more untouched lands and scrape away the natural environment to do so…because we have nowhere for the cruise passengers and tourists to party….because, where they do party, is all being closed down…by….uh….Dart
seriously…WTF?
Now that government have decided to finally update the Development Plan, the dredging of Barkers should be addressed in that plan rather than part of any piecemeal approach.
Here is what I would suggest:
1. Dredge the area from road to reef at the entrance of North Side (Handel’s home) all the way to Cayman Kai Public Beach. Make it deep like SMB with no rocks, and since there are already tourist on the north coast we would know immediately if it is working. The price of aggregate should come down with this new supply on the market.
2. Dredge the area around Wyndham Resort and Morrits Tortuga. They already have lots of tourist there that would like their beach to be like SMB also.
3. Move on down and rip out Frank Sound and Breakers shallow water and turtle grass. I’m sure they wouldn’t want to be left out.
4. By now the owners with large houses in Spotts and Old Prospect Point would be positively drooling at the thought of a mini SMB in their backyard.
Is the picture becoming clearer now??????????????
No please, I for one DO NOT want the area area around Wyndham and Morrits to look like 7MB. No thank you…
People choose to stay on that side of the island in order to avoid 7 mile….and we like the ocean floor the way it is
While I do agree with you, and laughed at your sarcasm:).
I can assure you, it won’t happen in Old Prospect Point. We have a lot very serious “tree-huggers” in this community.
So you have a working crystal ball or you have inside knowledge on what waterfront property Dart owns? Knowing the latter your scenario fits Darts intentions to a tee. The sad thing is that Dart does own expansive swaths of waterfront property so it’s just a matter of time before it too becomes an issue like Barkers, unless we unite and make like a big boot. Who let this vulture capitalist virus in to begin with?
Are you really asking this? The question is how do we get rid of him?!
So here is where now the protesters get to put their money where their mouths and hearts are. Let’s see how many are going to stand in the way of the bulldozers and the dredgers.
What is really depressing about the Caymanian Islands Governments past and present, is that with the exception of Wayne Panton, nobody in positions of political power has given a damn about Caymanian environment and environmental issues. All the representatives from West Bay are guilty for their lack of serious concern for their environment.
At what point do Caymanians wake up and realize they are selling out their future’s and quality of life here?
They are not the ones actually selling it. They are the ones being forced to swallow it!
Inch by inch…
Where’s the west bay Capt isn’t he in charge of the environment. I have never herd a peep out of him.
But I bet he collects his big fat cheque.
Calico Jacks, since inception as a simple beach hut (ie. pre-DART) , quietly and ceaselessly expanded a meter here, a yard there, suddenly overnight there’d be a new roofline thrust out, a more spacious deck…the railing and staircase would be moved out another yard…all with matching paint scheme…etc. We used to nervously joke about how it seemed to have a life of its own, constructing itself overnight, slowly growing on the low down from a beach hut into a total beach complex. The bar top is at least double the original bar length. Were there planning applications filed for these expansions? I Google and can’t find any.
The existing Calicos reminds me of some of the grotty sea-side bars you used see on the drive down to Key West . It emulates those with remarkable similarity , from the pressure treated wood construction and tacky decoration , then throw in the daily drunks and druggies sitting on stools. Probably why DART has axed the place.
Once ok is given for this project, Barkers will be history due to further development. Sad that apart from Bernie no other elected members chose not to attend. Speaks volume. Very desapointing to say the least.
Without the removal of the sea grass, “it won’t be feasible”, he said. “We are in the tourism business and this is a tourism facility… When people come here on ships they want to swim in crystal clear water,” Whittaker told the meeting, as a he spoke about creating a Rum Point-type resort location.
Does he realize the water is already crystal clear and that the sea grass has absolutely nothing to do with the visibility afforded?
You going to sell them 3 mason jars at USD $20 so they can collect the different colored water as well Handel?
If that sea grass is removed, the beach will go with it. What the F is so difficult for people to understand about this concept.
Nobody talkin about how maybe Dart should buy the old Spanish Bay reef for Mr. Handel – that already be dredged and has places for boats to tie up if that really be what he want. It would eliminate the dredging problem and the eyesore problem at the same time. Putting something smack in the middle of that set of plots wouldn’t disturb the neighbours either.
Why don’t you buy it and lease to Handel?
Dart is creating the south Florida experience on Seven Mile Beach.. Now he wants to recreate the Seven Mile Beach experience at Barkers. Oh the irony.
Then we will create the Barkers experience in East End, the East End experience in North Side, the North Side experience in the Brac, the Brac experience in Little Cayman, and the Little Cayman experience at a special ‘secluded’ beach on Grand Cayman, called “Little Grand Camana”, completing the cycle. Then we will all expire instantly and iguanas will rule the land.
If they try and touch Sand Cay; sh*t going down Bobo.
You got it
I think the iguanas would handle ruling better.
In 10 years time Seven Mile Beach will be an exact replica of South Miami Beach.
SAD
Sadly 12.48 it already is. I have said for years that when on the West Bay Road you might just as well be in Miami. The beach and sea have not been visible from the WBR for years. Very, very sad.
let an independent EIA decide,,,,
everything else is just hot air and conjecture…
You really don’t understand the reasoning behind an EIA.
First and foremost, you have to decide if a project is appropriate. If the answer is “yes” but it is in an environmentally sensitive area then you do an Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA). The results of the EIA could possibly raise alarms which could negate all of the other reasons that made it seem like a good project.
Anyone who thinks removing four acres of turtle grass is a good idea to begin with needs to be assessed for something else.
Had that young girl actually been to a beach cleanup, she would have have noted that the vast majority of the trash washes up from foreign shores and passing ships. Little, if anything, to do with local businesses.
1.16pm So building rubble , old cars, trashed furniture and unwanted old household ítems all wash up on the beach? – get real!.
Really? The trash along the roads then is also from the ships & foreign places?!?!
But no one said a word when the illegal dumping was going on at Barkers?
A lot was and is said about that. you just weren’t listening.
All this whining about a little progress.
This comment must be from a Dart employee.
We are all Dart employees. We just haven’t noticed it yet.
Wrong word, it is not “whining”. It’s called passion…and that’s not for sale.
Passionate whining.
Sour grapes would be a better way of looking at it. Particularly from a good few of those who squeal the loudest.
Get a handle mr handel
“Whittaker was also unable to say why Dart had not offered him a more appropriate new location somewhere else along Seven Mile Beach, where the group now has considerable land holdings, such as the old Victoria House site.”
Because Dart wants a guinea pig Whittaker you f’n muppet. He knows that if you allow this and it’ll be easier to expand it if needed and he can say it was a Caymanian that started it. Think about it, give the local a piece of land with turtle grass and if Whittaker can get it cleared he can then go in after and do what he wants but if Whittaker can’t it’s no big loss to him until the next attempt. Think of the land Dart owns that would be a great place for Calico Jacks and look where he sent you. You may have went to him first but ever thought that perhaps he made it so you would?
And besides , why does Dart, sorry I mean Whittaker , want to remove so much turtle grass for such a small bar frontage ?
To Have lots of space to rent beach chairs, i mean recreate the SMB experience.
I thought 4 acres sounded like a lot until I worked out visually just how big an area that is. Good god why is “he” asking for 4 acres. That is a ridiculously large area. I sort of work it out that he wants to clear an area of turtle grass that is the equivalent the the same amount of area of the stretch of beach from the northern end of Calico Jacks to the southern edge of the public beach in length and about 30 maybe 40 meters deep (or about 1374 feet of beach front going out 130ft in the sea). He is literally trying to recreate an area larger than the swimming area of public beach in barkers. That’s how big an area. Now make that area shallower and stretch the ends out and you would have enough space to develop. Well played Mr. Dart, well played.
Because they want to satisfy the tourists soft little white feet; apparently grass is not soft enough and they prefer squab (parrot fish) sh*t to walk on.
More bars more cruise ship passengers. I blame the cruise lines they want more beach experience tours for those passengers coming to the new George Town dock.
Let’s face it – Dart doesn’t want cruise ship passengers on or near his Seven Mile Beach properties. Handel would have better off if he had approached Government to lease him a piece their seven mile beach property right next to where Calico’s is now. i didn’t make the meeting but glad to know West Bayers continue to stand against this.
Exactly!, persons like Dart sets his wheels in motion remotely, and watch his soldier crabs line up to keep them turning and turning. Once it is built and making dollars he will take it off Handel’s hands and he will start over some other place. Handel with all his experience should consider making Northside great again by investing up there. He must have beach land or access to beach land in his birthplace.
“Rivers said he believed Dart was using Caymanians to “do its dirty work”. He said Whittaker was doing business with “very shady people”. Accusing the developer of stealing the Caymanian identity, he added, “You just don’t realise what they are doing to you.””
Has anyone.. ANYONE… googled Dart? This shouldn’t come as a surprise. We allowed CIG to let a wolf into the sheep pen, don’t be confused when the flock starts to go missing. How is he still here?
If either yourself or Paul could both read and comprehend, you would have seen the part where Handel quite clearly stated that this was his idea.
If someone put all the right indicators around you and subtlety guided you so that the obvious path is the right one and you could read and comprehend that, then you would come to your conclusion on your own decision and accord that that the path someone you didn’t realize laid out before you is the one you decided was best for you.
@ 1:06….. I don’t know if you are gullible or just another Darter, but just because someone “stated” something doesn’t make it true. Someone earlier asked if anyone had googled Dart…… I have….. and all Caymanians should!
Listen you dingdong. You must be a kid and single. You have a lot of learning (and comprehending) to do.
The best manipulators are the ones that make you think it was YOUR idea all along. Hello???!?!?!!!!?!?
LMAO!!!
Oh, yeh as if we believe that crap!!!!!!!
And therein lies the essence of artful persuasion. Plant the notion and make your target think he came up with the idea.
Brilliantly done but not to hard pull off with some people rund ‘ya.
Arguing that the removal is necessary in order to recreate the experience of Seven Mile Beach in Barkers implies that it’s even necessary to attempt to recreate the experience of Seven Mile Beach in Barkers in the first place. But that’s ridiculous when we already have Seven Mile Beach! Then Rum Point is brought up as another example to emulate, but we already have Rum Point as well!
The justification for this project might be the most blatantly self-serving and selfish reasoning I’ve seen in quite some time.
At least those in favour of the port have the decency to claim it will benefit the Cayman people and not just themselves!
Nobody building a port
Rum Point has turtle grass ; )
So why remove it from Barkers.
This is not a fight about the use of land for a beer and burger joint, but the removal of turtle grass in a marine park. Take a walk up there and look into the grass and you will see hundreds of juvenile fish, conch and lobster.
Trampled to death by galloping horses.
Cool story, except you missed the part where they’ve already been notified that no dredging is proposed.
“his application to dredge an area in Barkers that would remove more than four acres of turtle grass. “. Can you read or do you just prefer to ignore inconvenient facts, or simply make stuff up?
I didn’t realize that Dart/Handel Whittaker owned the marine park. Why are we begging them not to do something the Cabinet should be commanded by voters not to approve? We are always barking at the wrong tree.
Pathetic political posturing from a handful of failed candidates. Let the laws of the land, as created by those actually elected determine the outcome of this application, as Handel has correctly stated.
Your post is repulsive.
How many “successful candidates” are now failed politicians who are actually STILL IN OFFICE?! No one is a “failed candidate” – these individuals put country above self to offer to represent their people and CONTINUE to demonstrate their desire to represent their country and people DESPITE not being voted in.
Whereas, as we witnessed last night (save Bernie Bush being there) none of the other “successful candidates” who actually won a seat to represent their district, people and country could be bothered to show up and listen to the anguish of those in objection.
What I saw was a group of persons who love Cayman and her people and want to protect her from the greedy and ruthless behaviour of many who would rape and pillage to get their way. It matters not that those individuals once tried to win a seat to more actively fight for Cayman and its people. They did not quit…they are still fighting, even after being shunned as an elected representative. That speaks entirely to their heart and character you idiot!
On the other hand, you have a full house of elected members who are remaining mum or encouraging an ‘anything goes’ attitude – even saying in private that they don’t care, they won’t be on this earth when the damaging effects of decisions such as this are realised…YES, those words came from a very elected official.
THERE ARE YOUR “FAILED CANDIDATES” – they have failed the people. Not those men and women who choose to speak up for the people with nothing to gain.
Your ignorance is revolting.
Still not getting your precious road back.
Voters like you are repulsive. If you think Bernie Bush gives two shits about anything other than finding a way to get re-elected then you are more stupid than I first thought. The others hypocrisy shines through brighter than a unicorn fart.
BRAVO!!!
Would have been better for west bay and Cayman overall if Paul and Mervin had been elected. At least they have a heart for their homeland that far outweighs the value of the dollar. They are the real deal.
I’m an expat. Been here for 4 years. Love the island but hate what’s happened since I’ve been here. Selling off every last beautiful bit of island to the highest bidder. It’s a shame. Such an incredible place.
So does that mean that Mac won’t be back? Yeah right, the west bay sheeple will vote him back in.