LETTER : St. John’s | A City Drowning in Decay and Political Sabotage

Dear Editor,

St. John’s, once the heartbeat of Antigua and Barbuda, has tragically deteriorated into a filthy, ungovernable mess.

The capital city is a national embarrassment overrun with makeshift vendors, unsightly garbage piles, broken pallets, and rotting tents that choke the sidewalks and spill into the streets.

Pedestrians are forced to gamble with their lives, dodging traffic because the walkways are either blocked or non-existent.

The city’s drains emit a stench so vile it assaults every passerby. This is not just neglect; it is administrative failure of the highest order.

For years, successive Ministers have promised action but delivered nothing. Their weakness and incompetence have become so normalized that the rot in St. John’s is now seen as just another part of daily life. The people of Antigua deserve better.

When Minister Rawdon Turner, in his new role overseeing St. John’s Development, finally took meaningful steps to address these long-standing issues, many of us saw a glimmer of hope.

He showed courage, vision, and the will to act. But that brief hope was quickly dashed. Enter the Attorney General stepping in as Acting Prime Minister, not to support progress, but to derail it.

In a move as calculated as it is cowardly, he did exactly what we expected: he undermined the clean-up and development efforts just as they began to show signs of success.

This is the classic playbook of the “Old Guard” those who thrive on stagnation and fear change because it threatens their grip on power.

The people who use St. John’s are being held hostage by egos and political games, and enough is enough.

Minister Turner’s efforts must not be strangled by those who are too scared to let him succeed. The clean-up and revitalization of our capital must not be sacrificed to appease fragile pride or maintain an outdated pecking order.

The Attorney General’s actions intentional or not reek of sabotage, and the public must not be silent in the face of it.

St. John’s deserves leadership, not interference. It’s time we called out the gatekeepers who prefer a dirty city and a broken system over real, tangible progress.

Kerry Simon