Tonight, it is settled, but for weeks, the uncertainty surrounding the Carnival agreement was feeding unrest from the towers of power, right down to the huddles and hovels in Port Loyola.
Yesterday we met with some residents of the Jane Usher Boulevard adjacent to the proposed development area who have been told that when the project starts, they will be relocated at the Carnival Corporation's expense. But with all the recent back and forth, they were uncertain about their future. So, about 15 of the residents made placards and held a mini-picket. They told us they want to know what's going to happen to them because they have put their lives on hold for the project.
Hezekiah DeShield, Jane Usher Blvd Resident
“The people on the left side of Jane Usher Boulevard we are here and we want to continue to build and we want to continue to make progress. But with the situation which the government has us in right now we don’t know if we are going forward or stepping backwards. We want to extend. We have our families and we want to make life for ourselves. We have our business going on but still we have to wait until those people ready to relocate we. The amount of times they come and say we will move and then it doesn’t happen so we don’t know where we stand. We are tired of that now. We are tired of it. We are tired of living in fear.”
Byron Aranda, Jane Usher Blvd Resident
“They could move we you know but we want to know if they will move we because our land is full and we want to fix it up. But we want to know if these people will move we.”
KS: _So you are saying u don’t know when they will move you? Your future is uncertain then. They aren’t telling you anything?
Byron Aranda,
“Yeah they aren’t saying anything. They are not saying if they will give us houses or if they will give us land. We want to know that if they will give us a house or land so we can get our house. But if they won’t then let us know, so we can fix it up ourselves because we don’t want our land to sell. We want it to live because we have kids to tend to, kids to look on. We have to look for something for our kids. We can’t look for something for ourselves. We have to look for something for our kids.”
The residents have gone on the record saying they are willing to move providing suitable alternate arrangements are made.