Charlotte Street, Port-of-Spain
While the contract between the Housing Development Corporation (HDC) and China Gezhouba Group International Engineering Co Ltd (CGGC) to build 204 high-end housing units at South Quay has been cancelled, the Dragon still rises with a plan to transform part of Charlotte Street, in Port-of-Spain, to a Chinatown.
Mayor Joel Martinez announced that archways built by the Shanghai Construction Group would be located between Park Street and Independence Square, as part of a planned twinning between the city of Port-of-Spain and the city of Shanghai.
Charlotte Street contributes to being part of the city's financial hub, Port-of-Spain was once thought of as the Paris of the Caribbean.
Charlotte Street and the rest of the city faces various challenges, however, such as flooding, traffic, homeless, vendors, garbage, the wrecker, inadequate parking, pickpockets, choke and rob and chain snatchers.
The street falls under the administration of the MP for Port-of-Spain South Marlene McDonald and the Port-of-Spain North MP Stuart Young.
Law enforcement wise, if an incident befalls a person on the Western side of Charlotte Street, he makes the report to Central Police Station, if a crime occurs on the Eastern side of Charlotte Street, the report is made to Besson Street Police Station.
Carenage
Carenage has been a long-time People’s National Movement (PNM) stronghold, the MP for the area is Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley, the local Government representative is Councillor for Chaguaramas/Point Cumana, Akeliah Glasgow.
What residents want most is representation from their candidates, crime reduction, infrastructure, water, electricity, the Western Main Road to be repaired, jobs and flood relief.
The Carenage Fishing Centre was officially opened last June, however business only commenced in November when vendors were given their stalls to sell. The facility is underused as people are still accustomed to buying fish at the original location along the main road.
Ironically, there are aquifers in Diego Martin and the ocean is just a salt blast away, yet there is no water in Carenage residents' pipes.
The Western Main Road on mornings has gridlock traffic, exacerbated by the conditions of the frequently dug up road with hidden sinkholes when it rains that damage vehicles' suspensions.
Young residents are disenfranchised seeing that there is no room for upward mobility and enterprise, the only available jobs were fast-food franchises jobs while conglomerate enterprises in the entertainment and hospitality sector set up businesses in the North/West peninsula.
In its continued coverage of the upcoming Budget on October 7, Guardian Media visited the areas this week to hear what the residents had to say.
The questions:
1: What does a national Budget read out by the Government mean to you?
2: What are you experiencing living in the community that you would like to change or improve?
3: What would you like to see in the Budget to work for your household and to improve your standard of living?
Port-of-Spain
Anthony Belle:
The national Budget doesn't mean that much to me as an individual, but what I would like to see they do is actually help the communities and not the one-percenters.
I would actually like to see them help the community and not certain communities, those that really need this help.
I'm not seeing them do that, or anybody else in the country for that matter.
Mainly drop the prices of food. If they do that, they will help so much people because a lot of people live month-to-month borderline.
If they do that, I wouldn't have a problem with the Budget.
David Cummings:
I hope there's something better in the Budget for people.
I want to see more employment and less crime plus more disability grants for people who need it.
Marilyn Lee:
I would be glad to know if the Budget can help much more poor people to help themselves. Some people who don't have grant assistance, some are not qualified, others don't know how to register, they can't access National Insurance.
They should find some ways and means to give them something when the month comes.
Some parents cannot work because they cannot pay a babysitter, they have to stay home and see about their children.
The Government can still find something for them up to a point in time, give them something, let them catch themselves so they can go out to work, but they need to help themselves too.
I want to see a cleaner city, less crime, everything happens so much, sometimes you're not sure when you leave your house to go out in the morning or night, you're not sure if you're coming back in your home, in those unguarded moments things can happen to you.
Fix food prices, they must not go too high. Poor people can't buy items, not only for rich people.
Foodstuff is getting expensive every day. Sometimes a child might want to buy a pound of bananas by me, the mother might tell me she wants one banana for her child.
She might not have money. I would give a banana to the child to put in her lunch kit. It's nice to help other people. A lot of things need to come down for people to live and be happy.
Shaffick "Fatman Cassava" Mohammed:
I would like to see that the roads in T&T are fixed, a lot of potholes in the roads all over popping up. Governments for the past umpteenth years haven't done anything.
We're not asking them to grade them down, but we just fill them up...deal with that in the Budget.
Also lower prices of food for the people, food for poor people because there are lots of poor people in T&T, basic food items, remove VAT from some, so they can afford staples like flour and rice.
I would like to see all those community centres be up and running for the young people.
At least they should have some classes where whoever dropped out from school could return and pick up from there.
Some people tend to give back to the community, teach sewing, home economics, craft, the centres were built for this purpose.
Also bring back community policing.
The water in T&T is terrible, it comes out light brown, chocolate, then clear and brown again and they're asking us to pay for that.
Carenage
Wilma McKenzie:
The national Budget is always important to me. It is necessary for me to know exactly what the Government plans for the upcoming year, or five-year period while they are in power. It also allows me to plan ahead on what expenses or goodwill is proposed.
As a retired person, I depend mainly on the largesse of the Government of the day. As experienced, last year during the Budget speech senior citizens were to receive a pension of $3,000. However, that was changed without notice to $2,500. I can only hope that this will be amended upwards during this budget.
I would like to see Carenage become more commercially viable. Infrastructure is sadly lacking. Water is running on every street instead of in our homes. It is now time for all of Carenage to have a proper and reliable water supply. There seems to be no hope for the younger generation to become entrepreneurs. How can you invest in this community with such a poor major roadway? We have the ocean yet there are no enterprises, commercial or otherwise, which directly affect or involve the residents. Chaguaramas should be the place where most 'Carenagians' expect to find employment or invest in a business of their own but due to exorbitant property lease/rent of even the most basic enterprise—such as farming, small-scale food and craft sales— everything is outsourced to big establishments or, as we say, to the 'big boys'.
Of course, the crime situation is not helping either. I can only hope that when the new police station is built we will have a healthy rapid response team to combat the influx of drugs and arms, which seem to be on the rise once again.
I would like to see this Government take on the problem of squatting in our area, especially on the hillsides, eradicating the trend of slash and burn as occurs each year. The lands that belong to the State should be used instead for constructing proper housing units for the residents. Without proper oversight, you never know when your own property will be compromised. That is a source of concern for me.
Charles Thomas:
They say they're allocating a lot of things, but they don't or at least it if they do, they should put things in place.
They say they're going to fix the roads and infrastructure in Carenage where I live.
The Ministry of Works is not doing a proper job, they can't say they have no money.
I would love to see that they implement whatever they allocate funds to do like hospital requirements, the education system. It doesn't bother me too much. I still have to come out and struggle.
Nadine Harewood:
I would like the laptop programme where laptops were distributed to Form One students to be reintroduced and be more accessible. School education grants are needed, give parents an allowance to be able to purchase books in a timely fashion and the books that we can't buy, the Government would issue the books as well.
Cazamba Kefentsa:
I would like to see killings among the youths stop down here, there's too much of that down here.
If they could build a social interaction centre for the elders, where they could meet and play some card and board games in Carenage would be a welcome addition for seniors in Carenage.