And if there's ever an emergency in the Lake Independence area, the firetrucks will have easier access to the homes. That's because the City Council, along with MIDH, have eliminated the London bridges, making room for paved streets and actual bridges. But the mayor explained that that was only step one, and that they plan to create family friendly spaces.
Bernard Wagner, Mayor of Belize City
"That is huge, I can recall prior to 2018, I walked and I'll show you all pictures of that area, I walked on London Bridges, and now that area has been transformed but it has been transformed through collaboration with the community, collaboration with the area rep, collaboration with MIDH, it's not only Belize City Council that did it, it's an entire collaboration effort to really benefit the residents of the city and we're not finished there because we have the beautification component to it which we will plant some palm trees, we'll put some benches, we plan to have a bus stop, we did two bridges for the kids who had to go all the way round to catch the bus, so we did that. But we also have to put in place garbage bins and garbage bins that are not movable so we watch to encourage the residents in that area to keep the area clean. You see how it look right now? We want to keep it so, it's the residents who have to keep it so, it's not the city. They have to not throw the garbage in the canal, and they have to take ownership of it. The city could create all these beautiful projects but it's the residents who have to take ownership and say this is my area, let me keep it clean. We will put some nice benches along the route so on a Sunday evening a family could go and sit down there and enjoy some cool breeze, that's what living in a city is all about, right?"
