Quality of life and crying for Valletta

My mother is 82 and lives in Valletta. And I realise, as I write this, that appropriately it will appear on Mother's Day. Maybe it was all the advertising to get one to spend money on one's mother that pushed me to take a day off work to spend time with her, rather than wait for the weekend.

Some mothers prefer time spent with them, rather than money spent on gifts, and mine falls into the former group.

Not surprisingly, she finds it difficult to manoeuvre the narrow pavements in Valletta, which are treacherous enough for younger people.

Besides, people sometimes park their cars in such a way that she can hardly get in or out of her front door. As for her local garden - Hastings - it has been 'out of bounds' for ages. It is still one big mess.

I suggested we go for a drive in the country, but she preferred staying in town. I therefore thought it would be a good idea to walk with her down (or is it up?) South Street onto Republic Street and onto the club she likes popping into for a coffee, and perhaps entice her into some shops to get her a present I could be sure she would like.

The 'journey' was horrendous. By the time I walked her back home, I was exhausted; you can imagine how she must have felt.

Now we are constantly being told that Valletta has an aging population, it would therefore make sense that the very least environment planners in Valletta can do is take them into consideration.

The benches on Republic Square (Pjazza Regina) have now so little legroom, because café chairs are too close, that they discourage rather than invite people to sit on them.

There are no benches, or any form of seating, elsewhere in Republic Street, except for the cafés, of course. So locals and tourists sit on steps either leading to churches or the Law Courts.

What should have been an enjoyable jaunt down the main street of our 'Heritage City' only made my spirit sink. I was born and bred in Valletta and I still love the city, despite all the problems.

But as I usually rush through it, I miss a lot. I have also trained my brain to ignore the nasty bits, because I used to get too wound up by the ineffectual management of our city.

For example, I automatically never walk to, or from, the Floriana car park through the chaos at City Gate. When my auto-pilot fails me, and I distractedly find myself among the anarchy of white taxis, karrozzini, yellow buses and stall holders, I strengthen my resolve to avoid the area at all costs.

I am afraid that despite some improvements, notably the paving in Republic Street and the Upper and Lower Barraccas, I cry for Valletta. And I cry because I love it and I cannot ignore its failings for long.

Walking through it at a leisurely pace on Thursday I noticed that the piazzetta opposite the Law Courts is now growing into an extension of the shambolic, cheap and shabby souk at City Gate.

In Republic Street some men were precariously hauling big poles with a crane, which took up most of the road. (Could not this have been done in the evening, when that street is deserted?)

On the way back we popped into a grocer's shop on the corner with South Street. The shop's space is restricted and it is badly managed, in fact I very rarely shop there, because of that.

As we entered the shop by a side door on the Republic Street end, an assistant attempted to push some crates past us.

Had I been on my own, I would probably have just got out of the way, but I thought that shop assistants should at least show some courtesy to older customers.

She (the assistant) was very put out when I insisted that she should move out of the way rather than my mother, but she reluctantly did.

Unfortunately in one way, and encouragingly in another, my little confrontation awakened my mother's old spirit and she would not let it rest. She complained to the cashier as we paid for the goods. Rather than apologise for her colleague's lack of thought, the cashier started arguing with her. Bad move.

I was already edgy, and the lady in front us in the queue had kindly recognised my predicament and let us pay ahead of her; all I needed was my mother in full flow.

She reluctantly conceded defeat, when I told her it was pointless arguing with people who had no idea of the concept - customer care.

We attempted to leave the shop via another side door, this time on South Street. A van was driving on the pavement, leaving about a 25-cm space, because of parked cars on the other side.

As the pavement is too narrow at the best of times, we waited at the shop's door until the van made its way slowly forward. Its large wing mirror further reduced the space, and we would have risked losing at least an ear had we ventured forward.

At this point a 'gentleman', whom I happened to know, attempted to push through to the shop without a word, when he should have seen it would have been awkward for us to move back up the steps, and we certainly could not move forward.

I pointed to the van behind him and said we were trying to get out and that he was not helping. He got very defensive and said he had not noticed the van! (He must have had to really squeeze past it to get through.) And he did not know what we intended to do!

Could he really have imagined we intended to stand blocking access to pass the time of day? Anyway, if in doubt, he could have asked.

Well, I suppose some of us get so distracted by the stress caused by traffic and life that we really become oblivious to all around us.

But is this the way we want to live? Like robots moving ahead, regardless of who is in our way, showing absolutely no civility to those around us?

I had hoped I could have taken my mother out to lunch after our little excursion, but we were both worn out battling the world, so we left that for another day.

Cafés along the Ferries

While on the subject of pavements. Have the cafés along the Strand edging towards Gzira been given the whole pavements for their extensions al fresco?

I might be wrong, but I was under the impression that pavements belonged to the public domain, and that they were there for pedestrians.

But pedestrians are now being completely pushed off the pavements. And the latter now seem to be have been given over lock, stock and barrel to the commercial sector.

Open-air cafés are a good idea, but not when it means that pedestrians have to slalom through chairs and cigarette smoke, or walk on the very busy road, because access has been monopolised by the cafés.

That particular stretch is a popular walk, especially, for senior citizens who live in the vicinity and would rather not have to cross the busy road.

Who is responsible for this? Surely not MEPA!

phansen@timesofmalta.com