00:00Doma says in the midst of a divided society, the capital city is losing its
00:05luster. There is less foot traffic, fewer stores and a dip in the items being
00:11traded. I mean Port of Spain is holding its own but there is no growth taking
00:20place in city business at this time. There are one or two new food
00:29establishments which are showing up but apart from that there's no expansion
00:36taking place. President of Doma Gregory Abood says the business community has
00:41been relegated to silence. The majority of the population think that either we
00:46are unfair or have ulterior motives or are taking advantage and also more
00:54recently are influencing the government. And that has interfered with any
00:58progressive discussion sought with authorities. None of that is really true
01:03but it has hurt us terribly because we haven't been able to start a
01:06conversation about how to help everybody because we keep making
01:11accusations and denying requests and holding off on good initiatives because
01:17it may not be politically popular for one group to be seen as being listened
01:25to or the like. Abood laments that any moves proposed by the business community
01:30are seen as selfish moves. The retort is you know and this is from high authority
01:36this is from people in office including those in City Hall who will make the
01:42comment them have enough already or them always want more as opposed to the city
01:48is shrinking and right opposite City Hall are very many vacant buildings. That
01:53is never the reply. The reply is don't listen to them. Everybody have to get a
01:57share. Well that philosophy has put us in a place where we are which is that in
02:02trying to slice up the cake the cake is being destroyed. Now the businessmen face
02:07the brunt of division. I have been told on the street right outside why only to
02:13go from here and leave here for we. Policies and decisions actioned by city
02:19authorities don't always win the favor of the merchants like the renaming of
02:24Charlotte Street to Chinatown. I was part of that committee it was chaired by
02:28very eminent members of the Chinese community in downtown Port of Spain who
02:33had severe reservations about the renaming of Charlotte Street as Chinatown.
02:37It doesn't represent China at all. There's hardly any there's no Chinese
02:41food which was one of the things that we asked for the time give us some work
02:46permits to bring in some Chinese chefs nothing no interest. Within that move at
02:50Booth says there is much irony and hypocrisy. I mean maybe the mayor and his
02:55council would care to explain why the rules of the program are constantly
03:00being broken. There's a program there. You have the irony if I might say so
03:07publicly. The irony of allowing people to come and set up shop and tents and
03:16tables in front of a man's business to sell the product that he is selling and
03:21to block the customer from going in his shop to say look I have it here cheaper
03:25don't buy from them buy from me. Okay you have that taking place. How do you
03:32expect the man to survive? You can't see his business you can't see his show
03:36window you can't get into his entrance. Turning consumers away are the many
03:40ills plaguing Port of Spain's appeal as a commercial center like crime and now
03:46homelessness. The proposal for a move along program was never adopted. You
03:52can't arrest anybody but you could move them along they're not allowed to loiter
03:56so sleeping on a sidewalk and defecating in the canal is simply not allowed
04:01because you're not allowed to stay there so they come and they tap him with a
04:04billy stick and say look you have to move you have to move from here you
04:07can't stay here and you try to corral people in a humane manner into another
04:12part of the city where they will not obstruct the potential clients of the
04:16city we got nothing on that. The data exists to bolster his claim that
04:21business is shrinking in Port of Spain. The number of vacant properties
04:27particularly in some of the street to street malls it has also at its core in
04:33the data the number of buildings which are for sale and not only that but the
04:39number of those which have been for sale for an extended period of time some for
04:44as long as a year or two years now and then it has finally at its the rest of
04:51the data is at the rental per square foot that of the properties which are
04:56rented is significantly lower than it is elsewhere particularly in the suburbs.
05:02Every country Abood says needs a vibrant capital and in the case of TNT
05:07cooperation must be had. The business community are not your enemies the
05:13business community compete with each other and keep the prices as low as they
05:18can they provide you with the product that they could find that is as
05:21interesting as possible and they do so in an open market. This country would
05:27serve itself much better in my respectful view if we didn't have the
05:31adversarial opinion that we do of each other and particularly of the business
05:36community. Us and them. Big and small.
05:40Urvashi Timwari, Rupnir Ain, TV6 News.
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