ABSTRACT
A major issue in the current reshaping of urban waterfronts in the Caribbean stems from the presence of long-established squatting communities adjacent to port zones and to city centres. Forces for change, through the conversion and revitalization of urban waterfronts, stand opposed to the structural weight of fi xed factors such as poverty, housing defi ciencies, and decades of uncontrolled urbanization (Conway 1989). The growing attractiveness of coastal areas challenges the previous uses of what were once seen as unhealthy, repulsive swamps and mangroves. The fate of coastal squatting communities remains highly dependent on how new waterfront projects have been designed, by whom, and for what purposes. So far little attention has been paid to these issues.
