Mayor Wagner Distances Himself From Reported Sale Talks of Hangar Road

Belize City Mayor Bernard Wagner says if discussions and negotiations are ongoing over the sale of the Hangar Road, he is not involved.  The discussion came up after reports surfaced that several businesses in the area are looking to purchase the road.  It is a matter that would see the blocking of what has been a public thoroughfare for decades.  Love News spoke with Mayor Wagner who noted that the decision to transform the area is rooted in a petition from residents in the area.

Bernard Wagner, Mayor of Belize City: “Again we act on the advice of the residents of the area. The Belize City Council is tasked to look after the rights of the residents of our city  and particularly in respect to street access. We are in charge of all the streets in the city and for some time now, this is not just recently, for some time now those residents in that area has been complaining about the sort of illicit  criminal activity occurring along that area. It is pretty dark, it is pretty ominous, that area many of the residents complain that there  is sometimes gunshots being fired. Sometimes late at night they would see boats being pulled up along that area. They don’t know what kind of activity is occurring in that area. People go there,  play music loud. One of the residents told me when he wake up in the morning, Mayor there are condoms along the stretch right in front of his gate in the night time people use obscene language if they try to approach those individuals. They threaten them. Listen man, if I live in a community, if I live in a community and I can’t have peace and quiet in my neck of the woods then my quality of life goes down. The Belize City Council essentially is saying listen we are not allowing pedestrians to walk. That’s why we put up the planters. But it is the vehicles that go in that area. Just say last week, a drunken driver drove into the fence of one of the residents in that area drunk. The planters.  will be put there, residents or pedestrians who want to go in that area can still access the area.  But we will not allow vehicles to be in that area late at night, disturbing those residents that live in that area and disturbing their peace. We have many parks all across the city. Right up the street you have Rock Park, right up the street you have Digipark, you have the entire Marine Parade, you have the entire Baron Bliss area. Why are we  going in that area unless it’s illicit activities, unless it’s debauchery, right? So the city  is only responsible for the streets. We can only block streets. We can only say,  listen, we want this area be cordoned off to vehicular traffic and that is what we have been doing. On the behest of the residents of course.”

Love News received a copy of a letter dated July 2024 from the then Police Commissioner Chester Williams appealing to the council to seal the area due to an increase in crime.  It seems that some two years earlier, a petition with thirty-two signatures was also sent to the City Council by residents of the area.  The petition sought to have the area cordoned off due to what residents say was ‘excessive loitering’ in the neighborhood.  The letter went on to note that late at night into the early morning hours, people are at the seafront, drinking excessively, smoking weed with the smell floating into their homes, sexual activity, physical abuse, loud music, littering and street side parties./