We are fed up

THE EDITOR, Madam:

I SAT in utter sadness as I watched one of my good friends and community members moved out of Gordon Town recently. Much like everything else in Jamaica, earlier in the year the Gordon Town road breakaway drew much attention, but there is not much coverage of the egregious situation residents still face. The community is still plagued by the effects of the breakaway, garbage is still in the streets, it is still unsafe to pass the breakaway, and the $60-million alternative route is still useless to the majority of the community. To add insult to injury, we are now faced with immense noise pollution in Gordon Town from the Yeng Yeng bikers who have taken over our community.

It has become no less than unbearable. The bikers ride up and down the roadway – morning, noon, night, and certainly after curfew. What is even more questionable about the audacity of these bikers is that they ride without protective gear, and the young men on these bikes seem like they need to log on to their Zoom classes. The residents are in absolute awe of the entire situation because our police seem to be unable to handle the nuisance. Yet, we need them to take action.

Earlier in the year, there were stories of these bikers providing a valuable service in the community by transporting goods across the breakaway. I can assure you that is far from the truth. Though some do bring across goods for the ailing community, many ride without passengers or goods up and down our roadways. This is obviously an issue because these bikers are noisy and ride without care and, therefore, create noise pollution that is driving people out of the community. We are asking once more that the requisite authorities do what is right before our community, and peace, is completely lost. It is bad enough that the proposed fix to the road breakaway seems to be sluggishly moving forward, and certainly won’t be finished until the end of the year. We are tired of this.

Concerned Resident.