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But today the Minister of Tourism said that the street is expected to be paved within the next couple of days, through a collaboration between MIDH, CitCo, and the Belize Tourism Board.
Today, Minister Anthony Mahler offered that, as an entrance to the city, the road should have never been in such bad condition.
But during his interview, he noticed a litterbug throwing trash in the newly inaugurated Constitution Park - which we'll tell you more about later. Littering seems to be a pet peeve for the minister - and that sent him into a mini rant about the importance of civic pride.
Anthony Mahler, Minister of Tourism
"As you can see, it took me a while to get from down there to here. It's really bad after the rains. And so we saw it as an entrance or we see it as an entrance into the city. And it is important. A lot of the busses pass through here. And so it has to be welcoming. You see the young man take and just throw thing on the ground right? Those things gall me. Sorry to mess up the interview, but it's one young man that that young man over 21. It's all garbage planning going right It makes absolutely no sense that garbage can is right there. So we have to have pride that is what I will beat from now until I walk out of politics. That we have to have some pride in ourselves. We have to have some pride in our city for us to maintain it."
"Garbage is not cool. Garbage all over the place. We can't be considered as a sustainable tourism destination and we have garbage all over the place. Back to the Cemetery Road, it is important for us to be able to invest in the infrastructure for us to be able to monetize the resources that we have, even more."
"Let's talk about the civic pride because that's something that even Belizeans complain about other Belizeans whereby we see something nice and they want to do graffiti or damage it in some way or the other."
"Well, it is a mindset then, and we have to change that mindset and we have to… all the talking how to stop. Until we fine them, fine them, fine them and then give them community service, make them clean up for a 50 hours or so and make them clean up the highway, make them clean up the hotspots."
"This can't continue. I am telling you, between the BTB, City Council, MIDH and Ministry of Environment, we spend a tremendous amount of money trying to clean the highways, clean the river ways to ensure that it is at a level that we can say truly that we are an eco adventure destination with sustainability at the core. These are grown people that you see throwing the stuff that you saw just now."
"If you walk around here it is lone bottle stoppers and stuff so it's drinking age people right. And we can do better because we often joke that when our people go to Chetumal they know not to do that but as they come they bring their bad habit back, right?. And so I don't care if I do offend anybody but you all are nasty. That is nastiness and my mom from I was small always beat in my head that cleanliness is next to godliness and we should respect our environment."
