Partick Stanigar mentioned the somewhat self serving arrangement that produced Port Royal Street. Harbor Street was originally meant to be the border of the downtown grid. 

The axis of the downtown grid (north of Harbor Street) is east/west. If there was to be a downtown Central Park, it might run East west to harmonize with the axis of the grid. A parliament new building (which is a whole different subject) could run with the axis of the grid as well.

The High Line Park in NY shows how park space can be suspended in the air and needn't be at ground level. If the government could buy out an entire block--say the macro block bordered by Harbor, Tower, East ans West streets, it would be able to accomplish at least three major goals at one time: 1) Ensure the preservation of an iconic, unspoiled downtown block; 2) superimpose a multi-level Downtown Park; 3) Build what might serve as a multi-level parliament building. 

The original street plan would be preserved, along with existing structures.All rooftops would become planted park space. Paying attention to neighboring views, suspend more building space above existing buildings. New and old structures, park space and ground space would function as a sort of jigsaw puzzle--up and down, new and old, connections with crosswalks, etc. space for views..., 

PLEASE DISREGARD THE "ST. ANN'S BAY" LABEL. THE MAP IS OF DOWNTOWN KINGSTON. https://www.google.com/.../data=!3m1!1e3!4m5!3m4...

Manage

GOOGLE.COM

St Ann's Bay

Like

 · Reply · Remove Preview · 6m · Edited

Trevor Burrowes You could expand this formula to create massive downtown multilevel park with additional built space, and not have to tear down a single building.

DANCING WITH BUILDINGS

Trevor Burrowes Could this be done around neglected and abandoned architecture?

Manage

Like

 · Reply · 12h

Donnette Ingrid Zacca That's such a good idea Trevor Burrowes. Yes it could be.

Manage

Like

 · Reply · 10h

Donnette Ingrid Zacca I had been ruminating about something vaguely like that--how to make "dancers'"gestures go with the buildings' geometry (and whatever drama that geometry evinced)--and then, without discussing it with you, you actually come up with the required methodology for doing it! ESP must really work!

BEING DIFFERENT CAN BE GOOD The whole of EPA is historic. Being historic means it can get money and assistance like any other historic place...if it reaches out for help and seeks advice from historic preservation agencies. http://ohp.parks.ca.gov/?page_id=27961 A place or thing becomes historic when it is no longer in vogue and does not represent common current practice. The entire town was built out by the 1950's, and most of it dated from decades earlier. This does not make EPA a modern city. And that is actually an advantage. Modern cities try to outdo each other to build the tallest and most expensive buildings. Nothing is allowed to age gracefully before it is pulled down and replaced by something shinier and slicker. But aging gives a a place character and can make it eligible for an economic system that values age and texture. Tourism is one among these. The houses of EPA are too small by modern standards. Just the way Palo Alto's houses were too small by standards of the Silicon Valley up and coming. Even white professionals were driven out of PA as a result. If you follow the stylistic trends for housing and development, there is no way for this to accommodate a low income minority community. It has to do with "non essential" matters like style and the religion of "bigger and newer is better." EPA can reject that religion and still have a good economy, and one that allows it to survive among its neighbors while serving its different-from-mainstream population. It can market its differentness. It has not done that thus far. Historic Preservation is a tool for marketing differentness. An even better initial place to look for help is the San Mateo Office of Historic Preservation, whose director is Mitch Postel. He was very helpful in the formation of EPA HAS. http://ohp.parks.ca.gov/?page_id=21520

2 Comments

Seen by 4

11

Like

Like

Love

Haha

Wow

Sad

Angry

Comment

Comments

Trevor Burrowes And guess where the tip of Africa overlaps Jamaica. Ah yes, the glorious parish of St. Ann! Oops, my chauvinism showing again. But now I wonder where in Jamaica Mrs. Garvey was born.

1

Manage

LikeShow more reactions

 · Reply · 1d

Valerie Parkin But her funeral was at the St.Andrew ParishChurch, Halfway Tree, Kingston, not in St.Ann.

Manage

LikeShow more reactions

 · Reply · 14h

Trevor Burrowes I was just joking about St. Ann having any significance in the matter. This looks to be an issue of graphic design. You shrink the map of Africa so that it's similar in width to, and centered over and overlapping, the map of Jamaica. It is then unavoid…See More

Manage

LikeShow more reactions

 · Reply · 13h

Dore Tate Amy Euphemia Jacques Garvey was born on 31 December 1895 in Kingston, Jamaica.[5] As the eldest child of George Samuel and Charlotte Henrietta (née South) Jacques,[2] Garvey was raised in a middle-class home.[5] Yvette Taylor, in her account of the lif…See More

2

Manage

LikeShow more reactions

 · Reply · 13h

Trevor Burrowes Very complex heritage. That complexity as to culture and class spills over to her husband too, I think. Great lady.

1

Manage

LikeShow more reactions

 · Reply · 13h

Dore Tate Trevor Burrowes The "out of many one," cannot be denied - it is in the fabric--

Manage

LikeShow more reactions

 · Reply · 38m

Trevor Burrowes Which is a great strength. But this particular image symbolizes more than that: Women in the leadership; South Africa (SA) with ITS complexities--it has a far larger proportion of whites than JA ; the complexity of a white, first world economic elite and a black third world majority; the introduction of an African-national element into Jamaica in the place where modern Jamaica began--St. Ann. Every big movement begins with an idea. St. Ann can be where an INFORMAL African nation begins, with SA and Jamaica combining to define it as a mixed, "out of many one" entity that turns the pages of history.