Dear Editor,
People like to look at water. They like to sit near water, wander near water, talk to their lovers near water and take pictures of each other near water. The most attractive destinations have Malecons or walks along rivers, canals or lakes. Smart public authorities have optimized their waterside areas and have seen benefits in both domestic and foreign tourist traffic and clear results of such planning have been seen in Paris and London as well as many other territories have enhanced their attractiveness to domestic and international tourism .
One of the great advances of Sint Maarten is the building of the boardwalk, even though it went together with much controversy and preservation rhetoric. But in retrospect we can all agree that the boardwalk is now one of the positives of an otherwise diminished Phillipsburg.
Ironically by the time the boardwalk was built the momentum of growth had swung to Simpson Bay where the “strip” was booming. Clearly one of the reasons for its boom was the easy access to the Simpson Bay beach and the Simpson Bay lagoon. And whilst the Simpson Bay strip is still active, public access to the water is reducing. All the waterside real estate is blocking the public view of the water and eventually it will not be obvious to the visitor on the road that he or she is in fact close to the water.
It would be in the general interest if planning authorities were to make efforts to create more public access to water in the Simpson Bay area. It will benefit all parties.
Robbie Ferron
