Rick Lowe
First of all Urban Renewal programmes have been around in many forms since the early 1900's, so it was not invented in 2002 when the PLP were elected as the government of The Bahamas.
But, every time I read a comment from the PLP on their Urban Renewal programme it reminds the adage that "If you say something loud enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it."
In other words the PLP keep repeating the line that the FNM destroyed their Urban Renewal Programme that was working so many wonders that the United Nations even came here to find out about it to implement it in other countries.
First of all, the FNM increased the number of Urban Renewal Centres and budgeted and/or spent some $14 million on it since being reelected.
In any event, even the PLP now seem to realise the programme they instituted was not good enough either so they've now announced "Urban Renewal 2.0" and said their revised version is "a deeper social intervention programme that targets the root causes of the social ills of the country".
Second, in searching the United Nations web site I can't find any evidence of the PLP's Urban Renewal Programme being implemented around the world. I did find this report (pdf) from the UN entitled Rethinking Poverty.
I must admit that I have not read the entire 207 pages of the report, but in scanning it, I don't see a reference to how other countries should implement The Bahamas idea.
Maybe the PLP will release that report for us?
However, whether it's the PLP or FNM version of Urban Renewal, it's certainly not a new programme, and I have serious doubts that governments will have much success without families helping families and neighbour helping neighbour. Good old fashioned personal responsibility.
As Dr. Richard Ebeling points out in this lecture, the government welfare state really hasn't solved poverty after all these years.
I would much rather see private initiatives get involved in helping solve this problem. Churches and other neighbourhood groups can do it if they choose to tackle it.
The Center for Urban Renewal and Education is a good resource.
