EDITORIAL – Spaghetti wires cannot be promised away

Mayor Michael Rama is naturally incensed that utility companies failed to make good on an earlier promise to make so-called spaghetti wires, or wires that are strung like ugly cobwebs along city streets, will be a thing of the past pretty soon. Rama must have clung to values that hark back to his upbringing, when a promise is a promise.

But Rama should know a promise cannot be broken if there is no time component attached to its making. When the utility companies made the promise, they gave no bill of particulars when fulfillment time exactly lapses. They did not promise Rama a specific date. All they said was that spaghetti wires will soon be a thing of the past.

Besides, they made the promise under duress. They were under fire at the time when a post obviously struggling under the collective weight of all those wires came crashing down somewhere near the port area and killed a child. The wires are not only ugly to look at, they have also proven to be very dangerous. It was a p.r. nightmare for the utilities. If promising the moon would quell it, they would. And so they did.

But the wires were still there when Rama woke up on his birthday. The lines probably reminded him of how old he was. Rama went on the warpath. Well, not exactly, but angry enough to mumble some promises of his own -- something like doing the clearing himself and charging the utilities at cost. That is easier said than done, of course. Ask the utilities.

And so, instead of getting all het up and getting needlessly old faster than he should, Rama had better let go of the issue. The wires are ugly enough without having them get uglier by his constant reminder. Actually, the wires are more of a problem for the utilities than it is the city's. The city can move on regardless of whether the wires are up in the air or down underground.

What is important is that electrical power or telecommunications signals continue to flow through them as intended. For as long as this is assured, who cares really for ugliness up there when there is so much ugliness everywhere. There are the mounting piles of garbage which are uglier. There are the potholes and badly made or haphazardly repaired streets that constantly remind us of just how inefficient government really is.

As we said, spaghetti wires are a problem of the utilities. Eventually these wires will get overtaken by time. Eventually the utilities will realize it is no longer pragmatic for their businesses to keep relying on such monstrosities. When the utilities find it already too risky to leave so much business hanging on the idea that the wires will hold forever, then we will get to see real promises made, even to no one but themselves, and then promptly fulfilled, even without Rama knowing it.