Why is the repair of Nassau's downtown so important to us? Except for its appearance, what does it have to do with us? There are two answers to these questions.
The first is that for the past forty years or so we have failed to redevelop any new life in what used to be an important part of our social and cultural environment, and the blight has been a subject of conversation and complaint throughout the community. We have also failed to identify the cause of the blight, preferring to believe that the business-person owners of the real estate are somehow the root of the problem. It is certainly time to address the revitalization of the downtown as a functional part of the City of Nassau.
The second reason addresses the larger issues of the city's development. It focusses on the relationship of the downtown to its host city, and the generic patterns common to most downtowns.This answer seeks to understand the nature of downtowns, and how the dysfunction of Nassau's downtown relates to the issues of downtowns everywhere.
This is about the latter.
To understand the behavior of our downtown, then, we must begin by sharing a brief geographic trip, followed by a little history. We begin by finding a map. Almost any map. On the map, find the largest, old cities on the map. What you will find is that the majority of all old cities, those established before the start of the twentieth century, are located on the waterfront. They all relied on the waterfront for travel, the supply of everything from food to equipment to armaments and help during distress. But by the early twentieth century, first the train, then the truck and finally the airplane had slowly replaced the reliance on ships for normal travel and much of the supplies. By mid-century, most of those cities had begun to pivot to face inland, turning their backs and leaving their waterfronts deserted. By the 1960's, some of them had already begun re-purposing their waterfronts. Some used the dilapidated areas for high end housing, but the majority found that the old, lower scale areas with historic character provided the opportunities for the establishment of historic zones, especially for the development of tourism. The 1970's saw the start of global waterfront development in the effort to reintegrate dysfunctional waterfronts with their cities. We are familiar with many of them, like Fisherman's Wharf in San Francisco, Canary Wharf in London and others in Baltimore, New York City, Montreal, Miami and Barcelona.
In many cases, the cities have also taken the opportunity to address the need to expand and re-scale the downtown. Some have simply expanded the boundaries of their existing downtowns while others have relocated theirs altogether.
So, when we look at Nassau's downtown and the development of strategies for its future, we are not constrained to simply repair the existing dilapidated buildings and attempt to create sustainable business without local traffic, but we can learn from other cities and develop a long-term goal of a re-purposed historical zone extended to facilitate an extended downtown or a re-located downtown. After all, the city deserves a downtown, one that responds to its commercial, social and civic needs. And for that it must also address two planning principles that determine the success of a downtown, then create strategies to satisfy them.
The first is the pedestrian principle. In a marketplace, shopping of some kind is the most important activity. Generally, shopping is a pedestrian activity, and successful downtowns plan for a satisfying pedestrian experience. Downtowns that plan primarily for circulation by car (like Freeport) find it difficult to become the city's center, or heart. The shopping experience becomes one of vehicular isolation, which leads to the importance of the second principle. The second principle is the principle of the crowd. Crowds are the objective in a downtown, not a problem. That is why New York City boasts about its million people in Times Square. So, like the mall, the city locates as many activities and events in the downtown as it can, so as to encourage perpetual crowds.
Calls for the expansion of the downtown to accommodate growth are not unusual and should be welcomed. As shown above, the vast majority of cities hear the same demand. But in our case are those demands made based upon a true vision for a downtown that performs its social, civic and commercial function? Or will the people of Nassau launch the next 50 years of their Independence still applying bandages to the issues of their built environment? Curiously, included in the competition for the design of the new Central Bank was a requirement to propose the re-planning of the area from the waterfront to Over-the-hill. It was an opportunity to propose a strategy for the re-located or expanded downtown, and my team did just that. Unfortunately, there is just no interest in planning, either by the public or private sector, and there has been no exposure of the good planning ideas developed by the design community for that competition.
A few words about the relevance of the downtown. Many believe that with the convenience of the automobile and the creation of shopping alternatives (like Carmichael Road), the downtown is no longer relevant. They are wrong. With the invention of the automobile, Americans celebrated the opportunity to live the American dream of living on your own acre in the country, for which they eventually created a highway system and the subdivision. They soon found, however, that while for their commercial needs, they could build malls and shopping centers, other aspects of their lives still required a relationship with the downtown, like work, cultural activity, government services, entertainment (especially large scale) and their sense of belonging to their territory. So, after half a century of attempting to discard the downtown, Americans are once again in love with their downtowns, the source of much of the joy in their lives.
It is time for the re-creation of Nassau's downtown, not for the entertainment of visitors alone, but for the development of our sense of community, our sense of pride and to provide us with the social, civic and cultural fulfillment we deserve. Let us not continue to "peck at it" with the goal of more souvenir sales. Nassau's downtown must first serve the people of Nassau.
Without vision, most directions are likely to be wrong.
• Pat Rahming is an architect, writer and songwriter who is passionate about the importance of the built environment and its importance to the social development of The Bahamas. He can be reached at prahming@gmail.com or via his blog "From the Black Book" at prahming.wordpress.com. He welcomes other points of view.
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