So you think Ariapita Avenue looks busy now?
Locals and tourists may be swarming the snazzy Woodbrook street in the thousands if Tourism Minister Rupert Griffith comes good on his plan to refurbish the area with everything from trees and signage to food courts.
A revamped Ariapita Avenue is part of a $40 million tourism drive that should include facilities for vendors in Penal/Debe, an Amerindian Village in Blanchisseuse and facelifts for the Brian Lara Promenade, Botanical Gardens, La Brea Pitch Lake, Knolly’s Tunnel, Indo Caribbean Museum, Temple by the Sea, Las Cuevas, Vessigny, Los Iros and Quinam beaches as well as Columbus Bay.
And there will even be another $1.25 million available for “tourism and safety projects.”
Does it sound too good to be true, especially at a fraction of the cost of a new government enquiry? Fair point.
Ariapita Avenue, which already has trees and food, has long eclipsed St James as the standard bearer for local late-night entertainment. The government, on the other hand, still can’t organise Panorama.
So, Wired868 salutes the Tourism Ministry for seeing the value of the aforementioned areas but, as far as the Avenue goes, we humbly suggest that the government plays a supporting role rather than storming the fete.
As late US President Ronald Reagan once said: “The most terrifying words in the English language are: I’m from the government and I’m here to help.”
Mr. Live Wire is an avid news reader who translates media reports for persons who can handle the truth. And satire. Unlike Jack Nicholson, he rarely yells.