ÐÓ°ÉÐÔ°É

Keith Campbell is used to working as a painter. He regularly traversed the Corporate Srea and other sections of the island, flashing his brush on walls. That was how he earned his keep. However, things have changed since the COVID-19 pandemic. He is now employed as a flagman on the Kingston's coastline-protection project.

"I normally paint privately, but since the corona, I don't really get anything. Things just boil down," Campbell said. "I was home and got a call about this work, and I just move to it same time. Right now is it providing for me, so me feel good about it, and it is a good thing for the community, too," he said.

Kingston's coastline, stretching from Rae Town to the Bank of Jamaica along Port Royal Street, is currently undergoing major restoration and is providing jobs for scores of persons in the area.

Nyky Thompson was unemployment for a while and now feels her new job will be more beneficial.

"I'm looking forward to making a living from this, because this is a better pay for me than what I use to get before," she said.

Works to construct a sea wall along a section of the Michael Manley Boulevard in Kingston picked up steam last week, and is expected to continue for the next few months. It will involved extensive civil works being done to rehabilitate drainage features, sea defence infrastructure. A boardwalk with green spaces has also been planned. Omar Williams, a resident of Rae Town for 44 years, is rallying proudly behind the development

Help build it

"Me is a steelman and me use to deh out a road a work. But being as this is in my community, me abandoned the roadwork and come in my community to help build it," Williams said. "Me wah see my place look good, enuh, so all the nice steel that you see on the roadside is me do it," he said. "This likkle work that a go on a go make whole heap a people from Rae Town, go right back, get work. So God bless all the good people them involve that's looking out for us."

Meanwhile, the vendors in the community are eagerly excited about the possible revenue boost when the development is complete.

"From a development, you know say it is a good thing for the nation. This boardwalk is something that will help me to grow because it will bring more tourists, and that means more money. Me can expand me business and once my business up, everything else will grow," Namdi Thompson told THE STAR. "I'm excited because it is things that we are not used to coming to us. Like different people from all over the world will be passing through here, and the children, especially, will be exposed to different things."

Julette Thompson, a fish vendor, anticipates a bright future for herself once the area starts welcoming outsiders.

"The new thing that they [are] doing will draw crowd, so the business will go faster; and I'm thinking the money I will start to make can help me to build a new house, because a government house me live now," she said.