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Urbanist Brent Toderian has issued a call to the Jamaican government to reclaim Kingston’s waterfront and transform it into a vibrant, people-centred public space.
Delivering the 25th annual Maurice Facey Lecture at the Jamaica Conference Centre in Kingston on Thursday, Toderian, former chief city planner for Vancouver, Canada, described the Kingston waterfront as “worse than expected” and urged immediate action to reverse decades of neglect.
“The Kingston waterfront is not just underperforming, it’s actively hurting the city,” Toderian told an audience of planners, policymakers, and business leaders. “You are abusing your water on a daily basis. Stop abusing it!” he said.
His remarks came amid a sweeping presentation that blended global best practices with pointed local critique. Drawing on examples from cities such as Oslo, Copenhagen, Auckland, and Medellín, Toderian illustrated how waterfronts can be reclaimed and revitalised — even in cities with limited resources.
Toderian’s central message was clear: Kingston must act “further and faster”. He warned against the Jamaican tendency to move slowly on urban projects, noting that even well-intentioned plans often stall because of a lack of follow-through.
“You’re about to do a design for the waterfront park,” he said. “That project is in its early stages and is being spearheaded by the Urban Development Corporation, a state agency.”
“My worry is you’ll do a very nice drawing and then something will happen — the economy, politics — and it won’t get built. That’s the pattern. You must treat this like a crisis,” Toderian warned.
He urged the government to stop waiting for market forces and instead take deliberate steps to catalyse change. “Don’t hope and pray. Be intentional. Fill the gaps. Activate the dead spaces. Make things happen,” he said.
Toderian’s presentation drew on examples of successful waterfront transformations around the world:
Oslo, Norway: Aker Brygge, a mixed-use waterfront neighbourhood, balances residential and commercial spaces, creating synergy and vibrancy.
Copenhagen, Denmark: Civic and cultural institutions like libraries and opera houses were strategically placed along the water’s edge, shifting public life toward the waterfront.
Christchurch, New Zealand: After a major earthquake, temporary installations — paint, planters, pop-up parks — were used to activate spaces before permanent buildings arrived, a tactic known as “tactical urbanism”, Toderian noted.
Medellín, Colombia: Once the murder capital of the world, Medellín used innovative transport and public space strategies to become a global model for urban transformation. The transformation was the subject of a previous Facey lecture.
“These cities didn’t wait for perfection,” Toderian said. “They acted fast, creatively, and with purpose. That’s what Kingston needs,” he asserted.
The urbanist’s recommendation that the Jamaican government reclaim ownership and control of the capital’s waterfront was one his most forceful.
“If you have public ownership, don’t sell it,” he said. “If you don’t have it, try to get it. And if you can’t, negotiate public access easements,” Toderian prescribed.
He emphasised that continuous public access to the waterfront should be a non-negotiable principle. “It starts with attitude. If your top priority is public access, you’ll find a way to make it happen,” he reasoned.
Toderian noted that Kingston’s waterfront is currently dominated by parking lots and underutilised buildings, many of which are publicly owned. “That’s the good news,” he said. “You can start transforming these spaces immediately. Paint and planters can create promenades overnight,” the expert said.
Beyond the waterfront, Toderian stressed the need to bring “body heat” back to downtown Kingston through housing. “Homes, homes, homes,” he said. “If there’s a silver bullet for downtown revitalisation, it’s housing,” he recommended.
He argued that downtowns must be great neighbourhoods, not just centres of commerce or government. “If people live downtown, they walk to work, they shop locally, they create life. That’s the secret sauce.”
However, he cautioned that housing alone is not enough. “You need amenities — schools, day-care, parks. Otherwise, you’re breaking the urban contract,” the city planner said.
Toderian concluded with a challenge to Jamaica’s leaders: change the conversation. “You need a ubiquitous conversation about city change,” he said. “Not just once a year – constant dialogue that challenges the status quo and pushes for better,” he said.
Toderian cited his work in Kingston, a city in Ontario, Canada, where a public campaign called ‘The Power of Parking’ helped shift public opinion and policy around urban development. “We connected the dots. We made the conversation interesting, and we got unanimous approval for progressive change,” he said.
In Kingston, Jamaica, he believes a similar shift is possible, but only if leaders embrace urgency, intentionality, and public interest over profit.
“The cost of inaction is greater than the cost of transformation,” Toderian said. “You can’t afford not to act,” he said.
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