THE EFFECTS OF POLITICAL TERRORISM ON THE RESIDENTIAL LOCATION OF THE POOR IN THE KINGSTON URBAN REGION,JAMAICA, WEST INDIES |
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| Abstract: | Political terrorism is endemic in many large cities of Latin America and the Caribbean. From 1976 to the present, and particularly in 1979–1982, armed conflict between and within the two major political parties in Jamaica has profoundly affected residential location patterns of the urban poor. The Kingston Urban Region (population 719,000) has experienced dramatic movements in residential location. Between 1970 and 1985, out of a total exodus of 63,000 people from deteriorating war zones in the inner-city ghettos, at least 35,000 can be attributed directly to political terrorism. Such terrorism has also led to loss of housing and places of employment, overcrowding of other ghettos that have been spared or less seriously damaged, and a massive movement to locations up to 50 kilometers distant from the city center, in many cases to shanty and squatter settlements. The conflict has followed the exodus to the shanty towns, which are decreasingly secure and increasingly politicized. Transportation costs for some shanty town dwellers have reached as high as 44% of takehome pay. It is illogical that large areas of empty, blighted wasteland should exist within a kilometer of downtown while tens of thousands spend an ever increasing portion of their low incomes on commuting. |
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