Angry North Creek residents resist relocation
It was a story just too juicy to resist: An angry crowd, defensive officials, and a politician who was missing in action. Jose Sanchez was on hand for the action.
This morning around eight o’clock, the media was invited to witness the relocation of residents of the squalid North Creek area to better parts of the City. But due to some apparent miscommunication most residents refused to move from their plywood homes which lay snug between the Queens Square Anglican School and a stagnant canal.
Easy B, Resident
“They won’t just move us and tell us John is going to break down anything. John didn’t buy anything here. He can’t talk about moving us from here.”
Jose Sanchez
“Weren’t you informed that you were going to be moved?”
Easy B, Resident
“Informed? Last week we were informed and then this week they talk about eight thirty they will come. Pack up for eight thirty. How are we going to pack up for eight thirty?”
Denise Aldana, Resident
“Before Dickie Bradley was elected in this area he said that Queens Square people behind the canal and the school was his main priority. I guess this means we are his last priority I guess that what he is saying to us.”
Desiree Wagner, Resident
“I was at work yesterday when I call home, and when I get the message I have to come home because tomorrow morning eight thirty we have to move. So I left my job to come and check, Mr. Bradley is the same one who bring me down. He said “Des, it’s right here in Queen’s Square where you’re going.” When I checked the house at Fabers Road, the house wasn’t jelling at all. Worse than my house that I live in. I want to see Mr. Bradley because he said eight thirty this morning he will come. Make him come out here. Why won’t he come out here. He said about eight thirty, right about now quarter to nine. Make him come out here.”
While they waited for the minister to show up to give answers, Eleanor Leing, had already began to demolish her home from 5:30 this morning.
Eleanor Leing, Resident
“I break down my house because they told me I have to move. But to where I don’t know.”
Jose Sanchez
“Did they give you a choice or did they tell you that you had to move?”
Eleanor Leing
“They told me that I had to move.”
Jose Sanchez
“Now that you tore down your house what are you going to do?”
Eleanor Leing
“I don’t know. Right now I feel very disappointed.”
Representatives from Dickie’s Urban Renewal Office and his Queens Square Committee received a rude awakening when they arrived to supervise what was suppose to be a happy event.
Wendy Luis, Administrator, Urban Renewal Office
“We have allocated temporary housing on Dolphin street and Armadillo Street. Listen, Listen, as to what happens I don’t know exactly what will happen, If I knew I would tell you darling. I don’t know. Right now what we are doing is finding temporary shelters for you, nice houses, decent houses.”
Resident
“Nobody wants no temporary shelter, the people got to know where they going. We have been back there for ten years. We business to squat back on our land. That is for us right. So why you can’t give us in black and white?”
Pauline Romero, Queen’s Square Committee Member
“Maam, with all due respect, in all due respect in order to build houses, people have to be moved away. We can’t build houses on these houses. Minister Bradley is not a harsh man. He’s the only minister who’s been in government willing to help these people. He has given all of them jobs. He’s getting them a house with water and light, you can’t get them better than that man. What we’re gonna do right now their going to show these people where they’re going to go live, some of them have already seen where they’re going. Look people are saying they don’t want to go to Fabers Road. You’re getting a house for free with water and light. A decent house, and you are saying you don’t want that, then something is wrong with you man.”
Jose Sanchez
“The question everyone wants to know is where is Dickie and when is he coming?”
Wendy Luis
“Minister Bradley will be coming around anytime soon. He told me nine, nine thirty, he will come, okay.”
But nine thirty turned to ten thirty, then eleven thirty and still no Dickie. The crowd continued its protest and the police had to make their presence felt but not even they could answer the mounting questions about the relocation. Finally the Minister arrived around one.
Resident
“If Dickie would have come from morning everything would have already been solved.”
Dickie Bradley
“They will be relocated. They have agreed to be relocated. They are concerned over whether or not they will end up having to pay rent, to pay for water, to pay for utilities. That is their main concern because where they are they’re not paying any rent. They’re all helping and they have an arrangement where everybody is linking up to one house where they’re getting electricity, that is also unsafe. We will give everyone of those families and their children a decent place to live. We can’t wave a magic wand and do it overnight. They have to be relocated for us to go in and start the process of building.”
But as if someone actually waved a magic wand, the same people who were at the brink of violence hours before, were smiling and packing up their items towards temporary homes on Bocotora Street.
Dickie Bradley
“When we take down all those shacks that are there and we get in there with the engineers and get perhaps a portion of the canal maybe an additional five feet. So that the yards that will become available will be a bit bigger. We don’t want to have the kind of congestion that exists in Mesopotamia area, where houses are actually on top of each other. We want people to have yards so the children can play in safety and in health. But we will sit down with those who want to remain in Belize City and those who want to go back at North Creek and look at the economic condition and see what type of house they can afford. I want to state categorically, between now and December, they will not be paying rent. We will find a way.”
Bradley said that the confused situation was orchestrated by the Opposition United Democratic Party.
