Premier Alden McLaughlin in his Policy Statement on Monday (26) in the Legislative Assembly wants to recharge downtown George Town the country’s capital.

Downtown George Town has never been a ‘hot’ spot at night in the 32 years I have lived in the Cayman Islands and in fact I believe it has improved with the three beach bars on Harbour Drive. However driving through the town centre is definitely a place ghosts would enjoy to hang out. It is almost empty of people.

During the day everything was different. It was a bustling hive of activity. If you wanted to do any business in the Cayman Islands you had to have a presence in downtown George Town.

Not any more. With the closure of a branch of one of Cayman’s retail bank, Cayman National Bank this year the writing is on the wall and various governments have been to blame together with the landlords.

The number one problem is parking. The number two problem is the inflated rental prices. The number three problem is Camana Bay. The number four problem is the decline in the number of cruise ships that visit and the ones that do don’t have the spending power of the visitors that used to disembark from those ships.

Will a cruise ship terminal solve all those problems? I don’t think so.

When I practiced as a Quantity Surveyor here one project that came across our desk from the office of Linford Pierson who was Minister in charge of Planning, so I am going back to the early 90’s, was a multi-storey car park behind the George Town Library. The whole project was to be paid for by private funds from a number of ‘silent’ business partners.

The project was quashed because it did not fit in with the long-term plans the Government Architectural/Planning Department had come up with for George Town. The Chief Architect at that time vehemently objected to it. The other members of the cabinet agreed with him and voted Pierson’s project down.

What a shame. On the ground floor of the multi-storey car park were shops and the park also extended over the Library. The Library, still leaving its exterior the same was also going to be remodeled inside all paid for by private funds.

And what became of these long-term plans from the Planning Department? A new government came in and they got shelved.

So what are the plans for downtown George Town now?

The premier didn’t say because it is all part of another study by experts although he did give us his vision.

“We want to be able to draw new restaurants and businesses back to George Town,” he said, “and for property owners to have the ability to eventually refit some buildings for apartments for residential use or develop new living spaces. It is our plan to make George Town more pedestrian friendly with wider sidewalks, trees, benches and one way, or no traffic.”

That all sounds very nice but I cannot see how that is a blueprint for drawing restaurants and businesses back to George Town. It is people that do that and the question is what comes first – the chicken or the egg?