Can downtown Kingston really be saved?

THIS was interesting, from today's Observer, about efforts to redevelop Kingston's rundown downtown district.

Just last week Digicel announced that it was relocating its headquarters downtown, partly thanks to a generous tax break from the Jamaica Labour Party government. The JLP's 2007 election manifesto promised to revive the area, including an offshore financial centre:

Establish Kingston as a choice location for offshore financial services to exploit the benefits currently being enjoyed by countries such as the Cayman Islands and Bermuda. This will be sited in downtown Kingston as a fulcrum for the much needed redevelopment of that part of the city.

The current reality is that downtown is a crumbling but lively merchant area populated by some of the city's poorest while headquarters. Some of the island's largest company do remain, besides those of government entities. The same vitality once saw the area become a nightlife hotspot still remains, albeit depressed.

You're just a short walk from the harbour front; places of historic interest, including the National Gallery; the cheapest shopping in town; Coronation market; the Passa Passa street dance in Tivoli Gardens and countless other attractions.

Australian artist Melinda Brown cites this cultural pulse as the inspiration for setting up her studio there, having on her first visit to Jamaica walked downtown from where she was staying uptown in Liguanea, a place she said was by comparison, like a mortuary.

Okay, downtown may not be for the fainthearted and yes, Melinda Brown isn't you're average tourist – as the set designer for Mad Max she was well-equipped to feel at home. And yes it's a world away from European café society. but then it's a lot safer than you'd imagine and in the long run surely offers more than Montego Bay's culturally sanitised Hip Strip.

Click here to view the work of downtown artist Sand (see photo), via Seen.