Let's Build Gonave, Haiti!

Coeur de Soula via www.skyscrapercity.com The Focus city is more than just housing.  When you look at the overall idea, it is to place residents close to jobs, and key infrastructure, building nodes along a roadway, or rail line. One of the central themes has been that La Gonave should focus on mid-rise to high-rise buildings.  The lack of heavy equipment on the island to build high-rises will be a reason for the initial focus city to have mid-rise buildings.  Within a housing area, central parts of the project will have parks, laundry facilities, small retail stores, schools, small health clinics, and even police substations. The core theme is to have very little streets and mostly use pathways.  These pathways will allow for regular pedestrian use, and keep vehicle traffic away.  By having key infrastructure like parks and schools central to the neighborhood, it makes the areas more efficient and financially attractive.  Having the core designed ...

One major problem with Haiti's growth is the severe lack of container ports.  Shipping containers have to carry goods and services for people.  In fact if there were no shipping container ports, the world economy would crash.  With shipping ports, while vital, they can be extremely expensive. With a shipping container port you need expensive infrastructure, expensive gantry cranes, rail systems, etc.  Also the expensive cost to run and maintain the ports and the certifications that are needed for the port and employees can be a problem. See the Port of Seattle below in Seattle, WA. La Gonave needs some sort of port in order to have goods and services delivered.  One way of solving all of this and for a very cost effective start is using a hovercraft.  Yes the US military landed a hovercraft on the island before.  A hovercraft can handle the rough sea, the coral reef and shallow water, the rocky soil of La Gonave, and it is by far cheaper th...

One key part of developing Gonave is to allow immigration that builds the economy.  If Gonave is allowed to become a SAR, it can control immigration policies that affect Gonave specifically. An idea would be to allow someone from another country the right to abode, if they meet certain requirements to bring employment to Gonave..  This could be that they have to have a specific net worth, have an already proven established business, have a financial reserve that will support their business, and have a minimum number of employees that make a wage range. Some initial countries would be places where the French language was used.  While many in Haiti may not use French, it could be a cultural bridge.  Countries similar like Vietnam, many citizens don't use French, but some do. For example, if someone from Vietnam wanted to bring a shop to Gonave, and has the experience, to run that shop, and has all start-up costs, training fees, and sound financials, they could b...

I was contacted late Friday afternoon from a company that had expressed interest in Gonave before.  After not hearing from them for about 4 months, I assumed they were waiting for further organization on their part, or to see if Gonave would turn into a SAR (Special Administrative Region). Well later Friday I got a phone call which lasted for about 2 hours.  I then had to make additional calls yesterday.  A company which chooses to remain unnamed, wanted to donate $100,000 US to get the Gonave ID program started.  They would have to have several things in place before donating the money.  One would be that a clear path of having Gonave autonomous with the Haitian government approval.  The second one would be that housing and basic infrastructure is funded, and a detailed plan is ironed out. This is great news, and a big push towards actual movement on Gonave.  I started this project almost a year ago, and it seems to be moving.  While we stil...