Mayors Job

 If you live in a city, you might be forgiven to think that it is the duty of the administration to provide recycle bins . And most cities’ authorities do a good job on that. But most people think that cities generally perform a dismal job making their cities have that welcoming feel, one that feels like it’s meant for humans, not concrete behemoths skyscrapers and money-minded capitalists. And talking of concrete, wouldn’t a momentary park complete with concrete tables cool? Sadly for many, providing things like concrete furniture is not a cup of tea for many city administration officials. It is not a priority most of the times. Almost all cities in the world are run by as local authorities, or entities that are derivatives of these, with varying degree of autonomy. And most officials who head these entities are usually elected officials, at least in the democracies of the Western world. One of the more pressing issues that face major cities today is environmental accountability. It helps an aspiring official to put out his/her credentials as the more “green” candidate, promising to install more recycle bins, and defend the encroachment of public parks from developers, and put more environmental friendly concrete tables and other furniture whose make up is at least not unfriendly to the environment. Most of these officials conveniently forget, or are overwhelmed by other issues once they are elected.

Leisure activities take a back seat in such cities, and so does some cleanliness. Whereas recycling reusable materials could be a prudent solid waste management strategy, these are seen as time consuming and rather expensive. But of course, they will always be expensive when done using public funds. The best way is to leave it to the private sector, but perhaps the local authority in question may help in collecting waste and placing recycle bins at strategic points from where they can be collected by the designated private sector players. In the city where the author lives it is common for a charity or a well to do individual to donate a recycle bin (with the name of the organization or individual prominently printed on the side) and which is then placed on the street by the local authorities. There is a sense of the need to promote environmental health among individuals and civilians than among the authorities which collect tax for exactly the same purpose. Distributing or donation of a recycle bin is hardly enough, but some sort of civic education about how these recycle bins should be used not just as a way to contain filth, but also diseases and vermin.

Does your city make you feel like an outsider when walking in it? Some cities could feel hostile to a visitor because there are no public amenities that can be accessed by all the people as of right. In some cities there are few of no public washrooms, no planters but all concrete jungle, few operating telephone booths and motorists who drive vehicles with more elan than sense so as to make it almost suicidal to cross the road without being extra careful. And the available parks and public concrete chairs are the preserve of street urchins. Concrete furniture especially is desirable when resting in a park, for they are enduring and cannot possibly be destroyed by normal weather; at least in the short term concrete tables would be very helpful during outdoor seating event, like a picnic.

This entry was posted on Friday, February 8th, 2008 at 6:18 pm and is filed under Politics and Business. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.