Work due to start on next phase of GT facelift
(CNS): Eight years after the PPM administration announced plans to revitalise the capital, the second phase of the George Town facelift is about to get underway. The next phase of the Central Business District Enhancement Project, part of the George Town Revitalisation Initiative, is due to start Monday, 25 September, and includes the reconstruction of the intersection in front of the George Town Post Office and upgrades to underground infrastructure on parts of Edward Street, Main Street and Shedden Road.
“One of the goals of the George Town Revitalisation Initiative is to help people move around our city more easily and effectively by developing better street networks and public spaces,” said George Town Manager and Revitalisation Initiative Coordinator, Colin Lumsden.
Traffic diversions to facilitate the work on the George Town Post Office intersection have not yet been announced as officials said they had still to be finalised.
There has been very little change over the last eight years of the plan to make the capital more attractive and accessible, with the only major makeover being the ongoing work on Cardinal Avenue. While the National Roads Authority has made a number of changes to roads, many of the other promised elements of the capital’s revamp have failed to materialise, such as changing the planning law to allow residential apartments to be built over retail or commercial space.
Despite plans to make the business district greener, very few trees have been planted and some have been removed. But regardless of the limited progress and the mixed response to the work, Lumsden lauded the first phase of the project.
“Our mission is to bring life and vibrancy back to our capital, and the tremendous success of phase one has set the stage for this next phase of enhancements,” he said. “Soon, all Central George Town will be connected by pedestrian walkways and shaded pocket parks, creating an enhanced experience for all.”
The enhancements have made the area more walkable but also useable, officials said, pointing to Cayman Art Week and the LIVE Street Food Festival that were held in the space this year, as well as new events like the Ministry of Agriculture’s Town
Market, which is set to become a regular happening later this year.
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Category: development, Local News
Is it illegal for merchants to accost passerby’s? Does anyone know where I might find the relevant statute? I am so sick of these predatory businesses harassing me on my peaceful journey.
Listen folks this whole Revitlztn project is bull crap. If the first phase is to be the crowning jewel, let’s get it straight, this frontis piece onl benefitted the merchant family who owns the majority of shop space in that small strip.! The work did nothing to enhance the ambience for locals nor nature. And at what cost please tell us the true figure somebody !
If this is revitalization then people we are in for more spending to benefit some but not all. Political posturing of the PPM, let’s see if PACT is really that fool to continue this stupidi vision of the past admin.
Has Colin picked up the pile of trash outside the post office yet? You know, the one next to the “No Littering” signs, the one that has been there for more than a month now?
Would Mr Lumsden be willing the qualify his statement of ‘tremendous success’ with the metrics used to measure it?
No
Government has allowed too many sketchy businesses in. And has allowed them to pester, annoy and harass tourists. I was walking to Harbour drive from Cardinal ave last week. I was headed to an amazing and iconic store, who anybody Caymanian would know.. When I was accosted by a 20 something year old dude from a ‘cosmetics’ store. These Oro Gold type stores should be banned. They harass, intimidate and generally pester tourists. They leave a bad taste in everyone’s mouth.
The Indians now have more political influence than the traditional Caymanian Kirk jewelers.
I wonder why..? Three guesses anyone..?
Because curry tastes better than stew turtle?
Please ask DART to do it. Caymanians are too short-sighted and don’t understand the value of shade and aesthetics.
You need way more trees and plants and less pavers…I mean c’mon, even a child can see this.
Don’t do it at all. This is unnecessary, unwanted and a waste of public funds.
Where is the statue of Durty Reid?
RIP Reid! You were the best boss ever! You will be missed.
There should totally be a statue of Reid! I for one will start a fundraiser. No one was kinder, no one was more honest, no one was more deserving than Durty!
Trees, Mr Lumsden, trees! And lots of them. SMH.
Thanks Lime for cutting down the trees at the bus stop. Very colonial of you.
There is only one way to revitalise George Town; people living there. The Tower building site would make a great place for one or more residential towers. The Glass building should be torn down to make way for a residential tower. Civil servants who work in the Government Administration building may want to live there, skipping the daily commute from East of Grand Harbour. Once people live in George Town, restaurants would follow and life would be created. Currently, there is a dead zone where there should be a vibrant community.
Interesting idea. But rents are sky high, and out of the reach of most Caymanian workers. Only rich people could afford to live there. And landlords are only looking to maximum profits; an 1000 ft unit in central George Town rents for around $5000 to $15000 dollars per month depending on proximity to the waterfront. Government seems uninterested in policies benefiting Caymanians.
Yes, yes and yes.
Sounds swell, except for the loitering, begging, public uriniation and defecation, rubbish, cruise ship zombies, no parking and crime.
Yes, we have issues with known persons with mental issues. Lord knows I have tried to get Government to address one particular individual who likes to defecate on our property. But they claim that they can do nothing. So I guess we need to take a legislative approach.
I work on Cardinal. A store near to us just recently reopened after a year with questionable intentions . They are an Indian expat owned store. Their new sales clerk is from India. SURPRISE! Just off the boat. Why cannot a Caymanian be found for this position ? Who granted this permit? And why?
We are a locally owned store, 100% staffed by Caymanians, and have been such for 10+ years. Where is the oversight. I for one am tired of the second class status we face.
Also, Is it allowed for these businesses to harass tourists? They stand outside of their businesses and accost tourists. Pester them, and generally make us look like a haggler-fest. It is disgusting. Is this allowed? It should not be. It is so flipping third world. We are better than that. At least I thought we were.
Who’s the Cayman partner that owns 60%?
Don’t stop the carnival!
Actually, do. At least one of them anyway, we don’t need two.
Please do stop the carnival. The cruise ships do nothing for us.
I read these comments and shake my head in disbelief. stevie wonder can see the tremendous improvements made to George Town from heroes square to cardinal Ave.
thank you CIG for trying to make GT a better place to live and work. I visit heroes Square very often and stroll down cardinal Ave and sit and have my lunch.
thank you.
You sir are delusional. I work there. It is a disgrace and benefits no one.
I see your crocs sir. No one is drinking your tea.
Where sir do you ‘sit and have your lunch’? On the two Kirk Freeport benches? I am there 6 days a week and have never seen you, nor anyone else eating lunch in the blazing sun of yourfolly. You sir are not telling the truth.
Where do you sit? Where do you eat your imaginary lunch? There are two benches on Cardinal; both are owned by Kirk Freeport. They are the grey painted metal ones. They are located in front of their shuttered and closed stores. Gaslight much.
construction guy entered the chat
I am confused. Where do you have lunch? The benches in the renderings do not exist irl.
‘ I am so shocked that anyone is upset that we totally F@@k them over”. I am clutching my pearls in surprise. Yeah right dude.
Lie, I do not why CNS does not show this as a response to your post. But you are not an honest person.
You can’t even spell Cardinall Avenue.
Um, what? Cardinal is a disgrace. It is disturbing that anyone could or would see anything but the facts. I am so tired of the Gaslighting.
George Town = Kingston
Bet you won’t go live Kingston though.
At least it knows its a dump.
Who would choose to go there and get heat stroke under the hot sun? Breathtaking stupidity once more.
Or mugged
Please forget this whole idea, and reopen Cardinal Avenue to it’s old self!
The Beautification Board are totally out of touch with the real needs for George Town.
The Glass House can be “cleaned”, if indeed there is asbestos in the building, and made into the National Museum with the surrounding grounds being “park land”.
An easy walk from the dock, educational for both Caymanians and visiting Tourists.
100% agree. This was a huge mistake, let’s not make it worse because politicians cannot admit failure. This was a terrible idea, and has had a terrible outcome.
And of course let’s wait until school’s summer break is over so in the case we need to close any roads to do this work we make super traffic….
100%. It’s almost like they look at ways at causing the most disruption rather than the least.
Shouldn’t the rendering include a car on fire?
And an armed robbery in progress.
begging for cash
Love the Lumsden / Govt. trolls who claim they ate lunch on nonexistent benches. Liars. They are disgusting.
Make the surrounding property owners foot the bill. It benefits them and not the common man.
They should pay.
These wealthy millionaires sure love their money and power. Why should they have to pay anything when they can continue to fleece the common folk? Such disdain they have.
Yep you git that right… Cayman is so expensive that even millionaires have to be wealthy.
Except they asked for none of it.
Dont be naive 6:42am. They did get a HUGE up zoning and didn’t pay anything for the increased density and increased value of their properties and if you don’t believe there were some underhanded deals going on, there is no hope for you.
This didn’t help any Caymanian workers. We have lost substantially due to tanking sales, my commissions are down hugely since this stupid project. Many of us have just given up. First we lost from Covid, but that was nothing like the loss from the road closure. Closing Cardinal was 10 times worse. Everyone wants jobs on 7 Mile. Nobody wants to be in town, especially not on Cardinal. That is the worst of the worst for sales. Harbour Drive is still popping, but Cardinal is a ghost town due to the road changes.
Two words. Parking.
Par-King
We don’t want this either. No one, absolutely no one wants this. The only ones who benefit are the contractors.
Bingo! Bobo needs a new Silverado!
You realize we don’t pay come tax here, right? Where do you think the government gets the money to pay for these upgrades? Oh right, the businesses! SMH.
LOL. So now you pretend to be noble and a great benefactor and champion for the Islands with your development that dumps infrastructure problems that must be paid for by the general funds.
Quite a gig you have going and quite a narcissistic and delusional view of your importance.
Only Cayman can build a pedestrian zone spend thousands and install kerbs, hello no cars why kerbs? mind you Camana bay is no better outside the cinema a kerb in another pedestrian zone, and the blue badge parking also has kerbs down to, the spaces. As a wheelchair user it’s disgusting these areas are not designed properly, someone gets a lot of money and does a half assed job.
Frankly, this project is useless, with shades or without. Just like the Smith Cove improvement project that was rightfully put to rest.
The drawings look pretty good. Hang up some sunshades temporarily while the large trees that I am hoping will be planted settle in. Those shades look nice but they don’t really work well and will need moving around according to where the sun is during the year. Nearby parking is definitely needed unless this is only for cruise ship passengers.
The shades work very well in other places. Proper shades properly installed by professionals in the field of sun shades.
Well, trees give shade and more we have also cool us down and trap carbon. I’d rather have trees over tattered sails.
CIG will commission some. Like the $65mln Owen Roberts airport building “shades” that were removed a few years ago and never replaced.
They ripped out the shade trees, and replaced them with non shade trees. The artists rendering is nothing like the reality. Cars park blocking the handicap access all day, every day. There are no benches.. love the lying sob who has lunch on the non existent benches. This is a farce.
What exactly this project is about? I don’t see anything from this “artist’s rendition”.
It’s about wasting the people’s money.
concrete benches designed for robots under the scorching sun is called a “face lift”?
Is anyone ashamed?
I work about 1 minute from Cardinall Ave. I don’t ever use it. The reason, as pointed out here repeatedly, is that I cannot be ‘vibrant’ when I’m dying of heat stroke and the only coolness comes from diamond stores having their doors open. It doesn’t even have a cafe!!!
👍 It would be funny if it wasn’t so sad
I guess the way to fix this is to force the designers to relax daily on these benches mid-day under the sun
Designers..? I see no evidence of Designers.
Plenty PWD civil servants eating out if the trough though.
Cayman hates trees and all that green crap. Get rid.
I’ve been coming to Cayman for over 20 years and never walked around George Town. I can never find where to park. I have only walked around Camana Bay as that place was too expensive.
In fairness the Gelato shop is also a cafe…
True, but they are almost on the waterfront. No other restaurants nor cafes. I do love Gelato & co. And hope they survive Mr. Mountain Dew Camacho’s folly.
I was shocked when Public street fitness park opened on 7MB with no shades.
https://caymannewsservice.com/2022/03/public-street-fitness-park-opens-on-7mb/
Here we go again.
I mean this is not an oversight, this is an absolute incompetence.
Who is behind the project? Are they from North Pole or Norway?
Why Is Sun Shades Important In Dubai
https://medium.com/@almumtaztentshouse/why-is-sun-shades-important-in-dubai-c6c680afa594
Benefits of Outdoor Sun Shades in United Arab Emirates https://falconshades.com/shades/benefits-of-outdoor-sun-shades-in-united-arab-emirates/
Solar canopy’ turns sunlight into electricity and art https://www.cnn.com/style/article/dubai-light-and-shade-canopy/index.html
Shades in public places must be mandatory. Go to Dubai and see how it’s done. Heck, I was vacationing in Dominican Republic and even sidewalks were shaded.
Now….don’t put ideas about foreign trips in the heads of politicians and Civil Servants.
They’ve been there already
“ Deputy Governor Franz Manderson has found no breach of the Public Management and Finance Act (PMFA) following an investigation into a report by the Office of the Auditor General (OAG). But Sue Winspear told CNS she stands by the special audit she was asked to conduct on how the former administration and civil servants entered into deals and contracts relating to overseas offices and Cayman’s attendance at the Dubai Expo.”
https://caymannewsservice.com/2022/05/oag-stands-by-report-on-dubai-and-oseas-office-failings/
“Government has continued with a scaled-back involvement in the Dubai Expo 2020, which the auditor general found had cost the Cayman Islands around $2.5 million, most of which was not approved via the proper channels”.
https://caymannewsservice.com/2022/02/cig-presses-on-with-scaled-down-costly-dubai-expo/
SHADE MAN SHADE!!
whats wrong with you people!!!
PLANT SOME TREES OR THIS IS COMPLETELY WORTHLESS ENDEAVOR!
Not some trees, but fully grown large canopy native trees. Palm trees don’t provide shades.
Or
shade sails https://www.usa-shade.com/products/
Cantilever shade structures https://www.usa-shade.com/products/cantilever
Multi-Sided structure https://www.usa-shade.com/products/multi-sided
There’re many other options.
Better install plastic ones because the place will be under water before any live native tree is big enough to provide shade.
1:59, We are not the brightest people. I get the feeling that these people don’t get that we live in the tropics.
Why yall hate shade?
Why you throwing it?
Becuz you make it easy.
Fire Colin Lumsden now!
He made a mess of cardinal ave job. Cayman cannot afford another expensive disaster from the world class civil service where nobody is held accountable for any failures. What a load of bollocks.
Cardinal Avenue should be made residential. Retail/restaurants on ground floor and apartments above. Its also screaming out for shade trees. Otherwise, this whole project is a waste of money. GT is still dead after 6pm and will remain that way.
great place to live if you enjoy the random crimes, festivals, cruise ship zombies, dump truck sundays
It doesn’t make sense to bring more people into the Capitol if there is no parking. How about a parking tower where the old Tower Building used to be? On the top of the building you could have a fantastic roof garden with a lovely view of the harbour, and on the ground level you can put the straw market. There can be monthly parking contracts and parking meters for persons who just need to go into town for a few minutes or a couple of hours. This would also bring back money into the government coffers to help pay for the construction over a period of time, and provide locals for a place to park in GT. This would also help foster income for businesses in the downtown area.
That wouldn’t work, as it makes common sense!
Do agree with you!
Plant some friggin shade trees downtown. Why is that so hard to comprehend?
Just look at Camana Bay and their trees. It is not that difficult.
Camana Bay is run by private sector expats. 👍🏻
George Town is run by CIG and the World Class Civil Service™. 🤡
Garbage in = Garbage out. 🤷♀️
3:08, One does not have to be a private sector expat to appreciate trees for shade. Surely some of the people in the World Class Civil Service have travelled a bit. Miami, Tampa, Orlando, etc.
The politicians could drive the tree initiative in GT but they are an intellectually dismal lot from what I have seen.
Did Mr Lumsden say “the tremendous success of phase one “???
When will they do a reality check?
World class bull**#p!!
Mountain Dew Camacho Lumsden, took out the flipping shade trees! This whole idea was a boneheaded endeavor that has been a massive failure, expense, and embarrassment for Cayman. But it has electrolytes.
Any mature trees which have managed to remain standing need to be saved and incorporated into any plans for whatever ninkompoopery they are planning.
The shade trees along Cardinal avenue were put in by Rotary volunteers many years ago.
Too advanced thinking for PWD.
And Lumsden and his supporters tore them all out. Every shade tree they uprooted. Disgusting
The Rotary Club also put several concrete benches around the town. They were constructed at Northward. Why not do the same.
Why did they take the black olive shade trees down? Benches were also installed around the town by Rotary which were built at Northward.
Meanwhile Miami has replaced 15% of its palms with local shade trees. We need follow their example.
Hope it is not a fiasco like the last phase where they had all the labor issues
I thought it was mandatory on any government project that the contractor must follow all the relevant labor laws. Wouldn’t this mean paying the employees along with pension and health insurance? Oh maybe it will just be subcontracted out to all the buy a permit workers like most of the other construction projects.
and still no trees for shade lol cool
just more concrete that lead to jewelry stores
Some good ideas in these plans, but more trees needed!
Make GT great again!
When was GT great?
Buy the jewelry stores on Cardinal Avenue and replace them with restaurants and apartments and essential services like a mini fosters (similar to a ‘Tesco local’ in the UK). Then add parking garages so people can actually enjoy these businesses. That way you have a ‘Camana Bay’ type feel, cause right now, after all that work, Cardinal Avenue is still desolate.
The three rules of bringing GT back to life.
Parking, parking, parking.
Without that, all you’re doing is spending our money to get cruise passengers to jewelry stores.
There are 3 beneficial owners that control all of the properties on Cardinal Avenue. There is no way anyone is going to wrestle those properties from them. They firmly believe in this project, at the expense do their tenants. There will be nothing but over priced, low declaring, Indian owned jewelry businesses on Cardinal by season. Watch and see.
Good god almighty, that means it’ll be at least 3 years before any of us can check our mailboxes again.
waffle…from all those involved. 8 years and this is all you have…a few buzz words and no overall plan????….zzzzzz
there is no-one in cig or civil service with expertise or qualifications to tackle the issue.
if we can’t be honest and face these facts we will never be closer to a solution.
George Town is devoid of charm and shade. Ruined by cruise tourism in a race to proffer all the same crappy junk that is found in every other port on the itinerary.
The semi-derelict Margarita building says it all. We have tried for the tacky theme related tourist product demanded by the cruise industry. And failed.
Yeah but wealthy families own those buildings and can charge the jewelers a fortune in rent. And those wealthy families have MLA’s deep in their pockets so nothing will change.
the board of directors
Another make work project with zero results, unless you count removing all shade trees and making walking around GT midday unbearable.