"It wasn't good, but it had good intentions", that's probably the best that can be said about the largely unpopular tree planters that were erected on Albert street 18 months ago. Well, they are no more, after they were unceremoniously flattened two nights ago by the city council. Why? Well that's a short, cute story and a moderate study in the public malaise called wastage that Alfonso Noble has put together:
David Fonseca – Mayor, Belize City February 21st, 2003
"So I'll just sign it on behalf of the Belize City Council, this agreement. The agreement for the works to start and this agreement is for a six month period. After the six months we will reevaluate what has happened and then we will take it from there and sign on to a longer period of time for this to go ahead. Because I am sure, I know, that I will work."
Sure enough two months after the delivery of the 10 thousand dollar check the planters began to spring up on Albert street with youths working on the project. Despite vandalism of the so called ‘planters' the workers were undaunted and despite manifest ineptitude, they worked to build the planters with civic affection if not that talent of true masons.
Edward Henry – Mason (25th April, 2003)
"People knock them down that's why the look rough and everyday we put them down and as we put them down people knock them down."
Q: "So why are they knocking them down?"
"I don't know why because they say that is not a good idea what we are doing. They say we are just wasting government money."
Jordan Minter - Supervisor
"Once we get plants in them and they are looking nice I hope the people of Belize will learn to appreciate them and take care of them you know."
But sadly that never materialized and in an ironic twist, by municipal decree the planters were deemed just simply not good enough. Never mind the 10 thousand g's put into the project. In the stealth of night, city hall workers came in a year and a half later and simply demolished the planters
David Fonseca
"We have noted from the city council that firstly: the planters that were put in place were not done properly and they were not adequately designed to suit the purpose that they should suit and now today they are more of a menace than an asset to improving the downtown area. So we have decided to remove them, redesign, and we will be putting them back with proper design so that they can function in the method that they were meant to function."
Alfonso Noble
"In retrospect was this a mistake to have basically young inexperienced people doing this kind of project on behalf of the city council?"
David Fonseca
"I don't think it was a mistake. It's an investment, it's a learning investment, we are trying to give the youth an opportunity to promote themselves to grow as they move along. I think the investment was a good one. Whoever advised them because I am sure they were advised what to do and how to do it probably didn't advise them properly. We had no say in that. But I don't think it is a mistake to have given them the young people the opportunity to do the project. We will do it again but we will be advising them this time."
A sober thought, and one that maybe should have come before throwing this particular ten thousand dollars into the seemingly bottomless pit of public waste.
There's no date for when the planters will be re-installed but, as the mayor noted, the YMCA will get the contract.