'How can we walk safely along a busy street?'

'How can we walk safely along a busy street?'

Many people say that the month-long celebration of Jakarta's
478th anniversary, which falls on June 22, is just a way to
sugar-coat the chronic problems of the city. Many believe that it
would be wiser for the Sutiyoso administration to use this
commemoration to make a commitment to sort this city's problems
out. The Jakarta Post asked residents to share their thoughts on
the most crucial issue, in order to ensure a more comfortable
Jakarta.

Rino, 23, is an art director at an advertising agency in
Jakarta. He lives with his parents in Cibubur, East Jakarta:

I still don't think we have enough public space. The Jakarta
administration should add many more city parks, pedestrian
walkways and special places for us to smoke in bus shelters or
malls.

Take pedestrian lanes for example, how we can walk safely
along a busy street if we don't have them. Street vendors have
occupied most of them. Sometimes, we have to walk on the street.

Don't forget, Jakarta drivers are nuts. It seems that they
don't care about people's lives. It's very dangerous walking on a
Jakarta street.

Sisi, 20, is a student at the University of Indonesia in
Depok. She lives in a rented house near her campus:

What concerns me very much about Jakarta is the fact that we
can't find a trash receptacle when we need one around the city.
If I take a walk anywhere in the city I will have difficulties
finding a garbage bin to dispose of my plastic water bottle, for
example.

What I am saying is that the city administration has to
provide more trash bins, not far away from each other so that we
don't have to waste time looking for one when we want to throw
out some trash.

Even around Menteng (in Central Jakarta) which has some very
clean neighborhoods, no trash bins are provided. We throw our
garbage into the garbage bins of the households along the street,
and most of them are tightly closed. So, sometimes we throw our
trash in the gutter.

-- The Jakarta Post