Today’s Front Street photo confirms that the announced parking policy for Philipsburg is not only badly needed but must preferably be in effect when cruise calls start increasing in the second half of October. The depicted apparently haphazard measures – although understandable – are probably not the best or most attractive way to stop motorists from parking on sidewalks in front of – for example – store entrances. There was also a picture in Tuesday’s paper of a broken fire hydrant on Front Street knocked down by a car several weeks ago.
At times it seems that every solution is another problem in St. Maarten. When proper bollards were placed in the downtown shopping area to deal with this issue in the past, persons including merchants complained that these were a customer-unfriendly hazard, so government had them removed. The result is the current “wild-west” once again witnessed today.
That the existing car-towing situation described by some as a racket needs to be addressed can hardly be denied, but caution is warranted. Police themselves do not have the technical capacity to remove and administer large numbers of vehicles when desirable without the companies involved.
It is with good reason that – before the COVID-19 pandemic – the busiest section of Front Street was regularly closed off using barriers to motorised traffic with several passenger ships in port. Perhaps the time has come to consider taking the plunge and permanently making this an at least partly car-free street during business hours except for on- and offloading, taxis, etc.
After all, if people are unable to drive there, they cannot park there either.
