If you read my stuff you know that I am a fan of street art but I hate vandalism. And there is a fine line between the two. Most of the "street-art" that we have in Danang is vandalism and it isn't even remotely good-looking and requires no talent. I only bring this up because there are a couple of streets here where you can count on some new street art turning up from time to time and every now and then some of it actually looks pretty good. I was walking down that street when I came across these city-installed seating areas that were already pretty ugly, but the certainly look a lot worse when they have been completely destroyed by vandals.
If you look in the background there you can see Danang Beach, which is the main reason why hundreds of thousands of people visit here every year. This is really close to that and it just kind of shows how little the city actually cares about the beautification of this area. I didn't like these seating areas when they were new because they were not needed and they simply blocked the footpath in an unnecessary way. They've been there for years and despite my regular walks, I have never seen anyone sitting at them. If you look at the metal frame I think you can understand why. They are an "L-shaped" cubicle of sorts and each side will only accommodate one normal sized human. The back areas were meant to have a bunch of nice looking plants in them but much like almost any government-managed beautification project, these plants were planted once, never watered or maintained, and they all died. Soon after the plant areas started to fill up with garbage and the city's solution was to put a sign on it that said to not put garbage there while not providing any sort of actual place to put one's garbage. Therefore, they all ended up filled with garbage.
I can't say for sure but it wouldn't surprise me at all of this seating planter was actually destroyed by the business owners that are in this area. The way things work with the government is that if something is completely annihilated, they will come by with a truck and remove it. If it is just damaged or unsightly though, it stays there forever. I think that if it actually was the local business owners that did this, that it is a pretty good plan.
I don't hate the government here, I actually kind of like their stand-offish policies of just kind of letting people get on with their lives. I do dislike the fact that every single time I have seen them try to do some sort of beautification project that the process goes like this.
- Earmark a bunch of money for a proposed rejuvenation project
- Set up a stage and present some sort of award for the politician that made it happen
- Bring out the things for the project, take a ton of pictures of everything including said politician posing to pretend to actually be helping install the items
- Finish setting it up and congratulate yourself for a job well done
- Never address upkeep of said project
- Walk away from the project and NEVER come back to check on it ever again
- ...
- Profit?
It has happened so many times over here and it is to the point that any time the government goes out of their way to try to make something better, they actually end up accomplishing the precise opposite. All of these beautification projects are beyond the scope of the actual workers that are tasked with upkeeping it. They just don't care and apparently there is no accountability either.
For a country as poor as this one it seems to me as though these funds could be used for literally anything else and it would have been better spent. The idea behind these planter cubicles was to beautify the area and encourage more tourism. They are horrible eyesores on the landscape and encourage quite the opposite.
⋆ ᴛʜᴇ ᴘʟᴀᴄᴇ ғᴏʀ sᴏᴜᴛʜᴇᴀsᴛ ᴀsɪᴀɴ ᴄᴏɴᴛᴇɴᴛ ᴏɴ ʜɪᴠᴇ
⋆ sᴜʙsᴄʀɪʙᴇ ᴛᴏ ᴛʜᴇ ᴀsᴇᴀɴ ʜɪᴠᴇ ᴄᴏᴍᴍᴜɴɪᴛʏ
⋆ ғᴏʟʟᴏᴡ ᴛʜᴇ ᴀsᴇᴀɴ ʜɪᴠᴇ ᴄᴏᴍᴍᴜɴɪᴛʏ ᴠᴏᴛɪɴɢ ᴛʀᴀɪʟ
⋆ ᴅᴇʟᴇɢᴀᴛɪᴏɴ ʟɪɴᴋs 25 ʜᴘ⇾50 ʜᴘ⇾100 ʜᴘ⇾500 ʜᴘ⇾1,000 ʜᴘ
I think we all appreciate the effort trying to make places more appealing, but at least make whatever it is practical and thought out. I recall your post highlighting these seats when they were new and now look unrecognizable.