Approximate reading time: 1 minute, 41 seconds
Each person has given the city, on its 205th birthday, the best of themselves. Citizens, messages of gratitude, love and pride in the beauty of this city. The organizations, companies and institutions, for their part, bequeathed works and tasks to Cienfuegos this April, to celebrate the passage of two centuries and five years that have passed since the birth of the former Fernandina de Jagua colony.
There, in this cluster of initiatives, appear, for example, the litter bins or baskets that communal services have installed in main arteries and commercial areas, namely the Prado, the Malecón, the Santa Isabel Corridor and other emblematic spaces of the urban fabric.
This is not the first time that these necessary implements have reached our streets: the litter bins have been in the news on previous occasions, since to the satisfaction of the residents of Cienfuegos there has been the intention and management to promote a cleaner city.
Traditionally, as on this occasion, they have been installed in main streets and avenues, however, along with the good news of their placement, stories of the vandalism of which they have been victims have emerged more than once, when they were torn off or mutilated
The most recent batch, in salute to the city’s 205th anniversary, includes a supply of 250 trash cans, according to José Quintero Mora, provincial director of community services, on the subject. Quintero Mora also appealed “to the sense of belonging of the people of Cienfuegos to take care of these baskets, which in addition to their usefulness imply a significant expenditure of money to acquire them.”
“Eight trash cans have already been installed in Parque Martí, on the Boulevard we placed another 18 and about 12 on the boulevard of 29th Street,” mentioned the manager, after adding other city areas benefited from this action.
But we will achieve nothing if after this effort to beautify the Pearl of the South comes the devastating trail of social indiscipline – the latter, by the way, seems to be thrown into a trash can after each theft, breakage or damage to public ornamentation – and takes off completely, along to the baskets, the good intentions of decorating Cienfuegos on its birthday.
Likewise, vandalism is not limited to these accessories. The benches, planters, lights, and other urban elements suffer from the indecency of a few (almost always invested with painful impunity) and are also targets of breakages and theft of one or all of their components.
This commentator was thinking precisely about the above when listening to the statements of José Quintero Mora, about the resuscitation projects undertaken by the communal services precisely in benches, gardening and other elements of the Prado of Cienfuegos, with a view to the 205th anniversary of the city.
Regarding each constructive or ornamental initiative, in addition to appealing to the conscience of citizens to care for it, it is necessary to create some supervision mechanism to prevent vandalism from damaging what is built.
At the individual level, the greatest gift to the city remains on our part: let us take social discipline and decency out of the bin, and take care of every little piece, every corner of a city that stands out, among its Cuban counterparts, for its singular beauty and contemporaneity.
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