For many years, many Bahamians have felt a deep sense of embarrassment riding along East Bay Street, which is lined in the main with derelict buildings - eyesores that have sat for a very long time.

How these buildings were allowed to so deteriorate without any action from the authorities is baffling.

Motorists traveling along Bay Street are transported from a generally dull portion of downtown into the horrendously bad stretch beyond East Street.

Daily, hundreds of visitors to our country on their way to Atlantis resort and other Paradise Island properties get a full view of a dirty and ruin-filled part of our main city.

East Bay Street was once an area of vitality, but over time, it became a graveyard of sorts for decaying and abandoned buildings.

One senior government official present last night reminisced about the time when families came to the area to do Christmas and other shopping.

But that is a bygone era.

Even in its drab state, the buildings still hold a certain charm, but not enough of a charm to make keeping them make sense.

And for quite a while, we have heard government officials - past and present - make promises about overhauling Bay Street with no tangible action or follow-up.

It is thus refreshing and commendable to see the Davis administration taking notable steps to implement upgrades.

Saving many buildings east of East Street would have proven an impossible task.

Organizing multiple property owners to get the project off the ground could not have been the easiest effort, but Minister of Tourism Chester Cooper and Senator Randy Rolle, who is spearheading the effort on the government's behalf, seem pretty determined to get the job done.

Kudos to them and their team.

Last night, authorities tore down the Old William's Shoe Store building, an effort they said was paid for by the property owners who were present when Prime Minister Philip Davis and other government officials accompanied by members of the media did a walk around the area before the tractor moved in.

We were pleased to hear that the property owners are funding the effort. Cooper indicated that the owners of the first four buildings up for demolition have all agreed to do so.

He also made it clear that any money the government ends up spending on the effort will be recouped.

Cooper told reporters, "The first four that we are doing are being paid for by the property owners. We're going to do what we need to do to get the buildings demolished and we will figure out on the backend how we capture any funds that we spend on the demolition here on Bay Street. But we're not allowing anything to deter us, but we're going to let due process take its course and we hope to be able to get the job done and show some significant tangible works on behalf of the Bahamian people."

We urge the government as it carries out its various downtown improvement projects not to overlook the flooding that takes place on East Bay Street when it rains. It is simply disgraceful that this problem has for so long gone unaddressed in a capital city. We do not mean to suggest it is an easy fix, but it must be fixed.

It is heartening to see long-promised action on derelict downtown buildings finally come to fruition.

We look forward to seeing the promised investment by the Nassau Cruise Port into Bay Street's beautification. We also look forward to seeing other beautification efforts by the government and plans to breathe vibrancy and cultural enrichment into the general downtown area materialize.

An authority to manage downtown is critical to its success. We urge the attorney general to make this a priority item.

We commend the Davis administration on commencing the East Bay demolitions and look forward to the completion of long-overdue action in this regard.

The post Kudos to govt on starting East Bay St. demolitions appeared first on The Nassau Guardian.

The post Kudos to govt on starting East Bay St. demolitions appeared first on The Nassau Guardian.

Click here to read more at The Nassau Guardian