Cruise ships docking in Grand Cayman????

[Deac in the Wake]

Premier Bush is facing a no-confidence vote for a litany of reasons, one of the more prominent being the lack of a cruise-ship berthing facility.

cayCompass.com :: Port berthing agreement terminated

I do not live on Cayman though I visit regularly- mainly East End and Brac. I'm personally against a berthing facility but my opinion means little since my livelihood doesn't depend on tourism. I'm also against the North Sound dredging which Bush has pushed for and many residents have resoundly rejected. I just hate to see more development in Cayman; George Town has already become an anathema to what I've always seen as the Cayman way of life. I see more cruise tourism further diluting and replacing a unique culture.

More on the delay facing the cruise ship issue:
http://www.caymannewsservice.com/politics/2011/04/27/cruise-tourism-jeopardyhttp://www.caymannewsservice.com/politics/2011/04/27/cruise-tourism-jeopardy

 

[-hh]

Premier Bush is facing a no-confidence vote for a litany of reasons, one of the more prominent being the lack of a cruise-ship berthing facility.

cayCompass.com :: Port berthing agreement terminated

There's also the $2 billion Shetty medical tourism hospital that's going to be a financial disaster, as well as still the ongoing mess of the contracts for the 2005 Hurricane Ivan clean-up...not that one political party is really any better than the other.

AFAIC, the continuing political attitude in Cayman is "funnel public money to my party's Developers" (currently DART is in favor), regardless of if the proposed development is good or not. IIRC, there was just some project a few weeks ago where the law's requirement that an Environmental Impact Statement be performed - was simply ignored.

I do not live on Cayman though I visit regularly- mainly East End and Brac. I'm personally against a berthing facility but my opinion means little since my livelihood doesn't depend on tourism. I'm also against the North Sound dredging which Bush has pushed for and many residents have resoundly rejected. I just hate to see more development in Cayman; George Town has already become an anathema to what I've always seen as the Cayman way of life. I see more cruise tourism further diluting and replacing a unique culture.

Was that the dredging for a "build it and they will come" (golly, what a business plan!) mega-yacht port that IIRC China was proposing?

Frankly, I go to the Brac because the unique culture has already been lost on much of Grand, as I've observed that fewer and fewer actual Caymanians doing jobs that interact with tourists at all ... even on the Brac. An additional concern is that this also means that the long term implications are that the Caymanians are effectively abolishing the job opportunities for their own children. In the meantime, crime continues to be a problem on Grand, and they're surprised that their prior hotel strategy to escape "upscale" doesn't draw in high end visitors because of the hordes of daily cruise ship visitors that stomp through and destroy any semblence of seclusion, serenity or exclusiveness. The Caymans are IMO increasingly a self-contradiction.


-hh

 

[Deac in the Wake]

Definitely agree in re: the Dart comment.

Again, I'm speaking as an outsider who is a Caymanphile and longtime visitor so I respect the fact that I do not live there and have no endemic voice in matters Cayman.

I would very much like to (and am planning) on retiring to Brac or LC. One thing that dismays me is the view many on Grand Cayman have towards the sister islands. My impression is that many look down and view them as inconsequential and provincial in the pejorative sense. I see the benefit in that though when I think about the way of life there. A way of life that seems to only exist on the East End of GC and is getting pushed out albeit slowly.

One thing that very much angers me was the cutting of the mangroves and trees near Smith International. Damn what the CIAA says about approaching aircraft- I've flown in and out of Brac more than enough time to know that was a silly, unnecessary waste.

Furthermore, I hope the rumors of cutting a channel through the beach, Southside Road, and marshes for the Alexander Hotel to have marina access out to Crawl Bay are fading. When I first heard of that fiasco I felt physically ill.

Sorry for the hijack and rant. As I said, I like Brac.

 

[Deac in the Wake]

Further illustration of the divisiveness which exists between Caymanians (read comments below the story):

Cayman Islands News