It was said that the government has done a poor job of maintaining public beaches, parks, and facilities. Locked, dilapidated public restrooms, deteriorating basketball courts, abandoned government offices, unkempt parks, bus stops and pavilions marred by grafitti and disrepair, and beaches with no regular trash service were some of the problems cited by citizens.
In general, facilities should not be built if there is no plan or funding in place to maintain them. Considering the current economic crisis, and dwindling government resources to provide for even basic infrastructure, chances are that the government will be unable to adequately refurbish and maintain all the public facilities and parks that are now falling apart around the island – or, for that matter, to demolish the ones that are simply beyond repair.
This would be the time now to call on good citizens to do their part. The government can’t and shouldn’t do everything in the best of times, but we don’t even have a choice in the matter in the worst of times. And citizens have indeed begun to step up to the plate, with the various beautification efforts that have emerged recently. But there is still certainly room to do more – whether that means adopting that basketball court in our neighborhood, and everyone chipping in to maintain it, or allowing nonprofit groups to take out leases on some of the many abandoned government buildings on the island and rehabilitate them for productive use.
This doesn’t mean that the government should simply abandon all public facilities on the island and hope that citizens take over completely. It does mean that the government can’t do it alone, especially now. If we want to clean up our islands, we have to think creatively and collaboratively, and make the most of our resources we have.
Read up on some of the discussions that occurred here:
Beautify CNMI is the awnser!
I would love to see a swimming pool at American Memorial Park and Kan Pacific would love to shut down their pool. It would be the 1st public swimming pool on Saipan. (Rota and Tinian both have public pools, but I believe neither are opperational) From my observations all the facilities in the park are well maintained.
On another note, if we had safe bike paths I’d happily ride to work and let my children use their bikes for transportation. I think safe bike paths would also appeal to many tourists.
Beautify CNMI is to be commended for all the great work they do. However, our CNMI government needs to launch their own campaign on beautifying the CNMI. How about a campaign to combat betelnut SPITTING? The problem isn’t chewing, it’s spitting! Palau did this and cleaned up their island significantly. Why can’t our government do the same?
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