And while the PM has lashed out at the foreign born, overnight tourism interests, he continues to unreservedly support cruise tourism. Proof of that came on Saturday afternoon, when he presided over the ceremonial opening of the marine parade boulevard. Sure, it was opened to traffic weeks ago, but the party just ain't a party 'til the area representative has his say, and here's his.
Keith SwiftReporting,
As he walked the Marine Parade with area residents, the Prime Minister made it clear that this is more than a new road, it is the right path.
Hon. Said Musa,
“I don’t think there is any easy road to development. It’s a question of making choices and we have made a choice that in Belize tourism will be a major part of the development process for Belize for years to come.”
As this aerial shot shows, the physical outline of Belize City shows how significantly the physical outline of the city’s coast has been change by the $14 million Marine Parade boulevard project. What was formerly a rounded shoreline, is now U-shaped and there’s a lot of prime real estate here but not all of it is for sale. In fact settling the shoreline area was a major task for the area representative.
Hon. Said Musa,
“And there were many problems involved with this project. I can recall for instance getting summoned by the Sisters of Mercy who wondered what was going on behind their property here. What are you going to do to us? How are you going to expose our young girls to what’s going on here they asked. So I had to go and respond eh sister? I had to go and sit down and explain myself and what I understood this project was all about. And I want to ensure to the sisters incidentally that I will keep my promise that nothing will be allowed to be built behind you here. That land will remain for the convent as part of the school property. Mr. Bowman mentioned that we will have approximately 15 acres of land. That was the originally idea that we have 15 acres of land to sell so we can pay largely for this project. And we are sad to say that we won’t have 15 acres of land because of the downside to the project and because of all kinds of claims that came against us riparian rights. So we’ve had to concede some of the land to some of the people who lived on the water edge and again we want to assure them that our commitments will be kept to them.”
And those commitments will come at a cost of 3 acres, as 12 acres will still be left to be sold to private interests.
The project, just over one mile of road, and tons of landfill was completed at a cost of $14 million.