Focus City revisited.
Early on when I started this blog I had talked about Focus City sites on La Gonave. Hurko Co was leading the charge of doing this and many different places on La Gonave were considered ideas. These would be places where there was a small to no human population, mostly flat terrain, high potential to tourism, etc. Hurko Co had been very quiet for many months, and had not mentioned much about what they planned on doing in the future.
Hurko mentioned building hand carts, and honeybee hives that would employ locals, but other than that, very little has been mentioned. The original plan of building housing on the island from the company seemed to have vanished. There was not actual timeline for when housing would start. Now it seems that the Focus City could get some steam. The most I have been told is that individual houses and farms would be the initial focus. Still basic infrastructure would be built though no detail if building heavy rail was still an option.
My guess is fear. Part of the major problem with Haiti as I have mentioned is the high cost of doing business, corruption, land rights, logistics, etc. To get extremely heavy equipment to the island is a mission. To bring in the large amounts of resources to build housing and apartments are difficult. Even the idea of using shipping containers for apartments, while very realistic, is again difficult at best with respect to La Gonave. The cost of construction is expensive everywhere and especially on La Gonave. Adding to difficulties are politics. Political stability for Haiti is scary for many and businesses will simply avoid locating or investing in Haiti. All the more reason why I feel that La Gonave should be a Special Administrative Region. While still a part of Haiti, La Gonave would have it's own systems of government. This will aid in stability and development of the island.
While this sounds like a sad blog post, let me mention the good! The Focus City idea is still very much being planned. Some items on the wish list for Hurko is either being tweaked, or omitted all together. One thing is for certain is that housing and building of schools is still the objective. Logistics will still be a major problem and I expect that since no details on the number of houses has been mentioned, I suspect that the Focus City will be a new city that has no people, but will add people over time. I have seen a picture of experimental housing that an agency has built that would be a more practical way of developing individual houses. While these houses would be built from wood, sources claim it would take a crew of 5, about 5 days to put the house up. So obviously the houses are somewhat prefabricated in some way.
I think the idea of adding people and business as time goes on is a smart idea. It allows the project to be scaled down and allows for a long term development plan. With working on a blank canvas, the development can be altered at anytime. No blueprints are needed, just ideas. I suspect that possibly fewer than 10 houses would be built and a company that can hire a small labor force. More than likely it would be a small to mid-sized business from the mainland that would be chosen to start an operation on La Gonave. Based on the many different software clips I was shown landscaping and infrastructure would rival what is seen in many modern places in the world.
We shall see!
Go Gonave!
Hurko mentioned building hand carts, and honeybee hives that would employ locals, but other than that, very little has been mentioned. The original plan of building housing on the island from the company seemed to have vanished. There was not actual timeline for when housing would start. Now it seems that the Focus City could get some steam. The most I have been told is that individual houses and farms would be the initial focus. Still basic infrastructure would be built though no detail if building heavy rail was still an option.
My guess is fear. Part of the major problem with Haiti as I have mentioned is the high cost of doing business, corruption, land rights, logistics, etc. To get extremely heavy equipment to the island is a mission. To bring in the large amounts of resources to build housing and apartments are difficult. Even the idea of using shipping containers for apartments, while very realistic, is again difficult at best with respect to La Gonave. The cost of construction is expensive everywhere and especially on La Gonave. Adding to difficulties are politics. Political stability for Haiti is scary for many and businesses will simply avoid locating or investing in Haiti. All the more reason why I feel that La Gonave should be a Special Administrative Region. While still a part of Haiti, La Gonave would have it's own systems of government. This will aid in stability and development of the island.
While this sounds like a sad blog post, let me mention the good! The Focus City idea is still very much being planned. Some items on the wish list for Hurko is either being tweaked, or omitted all together. One thing is for certain is that housing and building of schools is still the objective. Logistics will still be a major problem and I expect that since no details on the number of houses has been mentioned, I suspect that the Focus City will be a new city that has no people, but will add people over time. I have seen a picture of experimental housing that an agency has built that would be a more practical way of developing individual houses. While these houses would be built from wood, sources claim it would take a crew of 5, about 5 days to put the house up. So obviously the houses are somewhat prefabricated in some way.
I think the idea of adding people and business as time goes on is a smart idea. It allows the project to be scaled down and allows for a long term development plan. With working on a blank canvas, the development can be altered at anytime. No blueprints are needed, just ideas. I suspect that possibly fewer than 10 houses would be built and a company that can hire a small labor force. More than likely it would be a small to mid-sized business from the mainland that would be chosen to start an operation on La Gonave. Based on the many different software clips I was shown landscaping and infrastructure would rival what is seen in many modern places in the world.
We shall see!
Go Gonave!
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