Cebu City Mayor Michael Rama is embarking on an ambitious program to beautify the city. Recently, he created the Super Beautification Council, whose job is to beautify the street sidewalks around the city.
The council, headed by socialite and philanthropist Mariquita Salimbangon Yeung, will have the sidewalks of Osmeña Boulevard beautified first. Rama wanted that road spruced up because it is the main thoroughfare leading to the Cebu Provincial Capitol.
Also part of the beautification council's function is to clean up sidewalks from vendors. In fact, the new administration is beginning to implement a "one-side vending policy" to regulate the operations of vendors along sidewalks, especially those in the downtown area.
Despite drawing criticism from former mayor Tomas Osmeña, the creation of the "super body" can be a good start towards a clean city. For years, City Hall has been drawing flaks for its failure to improve the condition of the city roads, sidewalks, riverbanks, among others.
The city has been consistently named one of the most livable cities across Asia. That is why tourists' first impression of the city is that being the "Queen City of the South," it has an environment at par with those modern urban areas.
Unfortunately, the city failed in the area of beautification. Foul smell emanating from dirty creeks and filthy streets, aside from the lack of security, prevented tourists from venturing into the downtown area.
This is not to say the previous administration of Osmeña failed to take action on the need to beautify the city. The city has a number of programs, which includes the Parks and Playground Commission, designed to uplift the state of its streets, rivers and other public areas.
However, those efforts were still not enough. There is still a lot to be done in order for the city to be livable enough to be at par with those modern cities in developed countries.
It remains to be seen whether the Super Beautification Council has what it takes to improve the city's "dirty" image. But the people are expecting it to serve its intended purpose, so Rama should better be serious on his gargantuan mission.