Saeed Al-Suraihi

Okaz

 

Ironically, Jeddah Municipality, whose responsibilities include maintaining public parks and keeping them in good condition, has failed to keep the public park opposite its own building in a good condition.



Until recently, the park’s benches were in a bad shape while the rides were dangerous to use. In a nutshell, the park was an eyesore for everyone who passed by.



For some reason, the municipality left it in this bad condition until a citizen videotaped the park and put the video on the social media. After seeing the video, the municipality sent its maintenance team to repair the rides and renovate the benches. The park no longer looks ugly.



Maybe the municipality should stop sending maintenance teams out and ask its officials to keep a close eye on social media websites and watch what is going on in the city.



Maybe we, as citizens and expatriates, could film every poorly maintained park in Jeddah and post it on social media websites so that the municipality can see and act.



It is really ironic how the municipality missed the park opposite its building and only knew about it when it saw it on the social media. What about the potholes and open manholes all over Jeddah? When will the municipality take care of them?



This park incident proves one thing: some government agencies do not take action unless they fear they will be exposed in the media. They act quickly to spare themselves the scandal.



They do not want the news to reach the higher authorities because they know, if it did, they would have to face the music for their negligence.