Sliema is my hometown—so I obviously start this with a caveat that I am biased in the midst of a concretely beautiful town. We, who live here, love life in boxes and other glittering stuff.
Bisazza Street is one of the loveliest streets in Sliema. It is car-free, and fume-free. At least that’s how it’s been for some few years now, but it seems this will soon end. Buses, cars and trucks will be brought back to fume us all out..
How dumb is that?
We keep being told shopkeepers are all in favour of letting cars back. Yes, unbelievable but true—shop owners prefer the pollution, the mayhem and the menace of vehicles to pedestrianisation.
If I owned a shop I’d surely prefer having streets without cars where families can move about with children running around safely.
Besides shop-owners the experts have now spoken—and, Malta being Malta, we have great experts who really know how to tackle problems.
These experts have urged the authorities to go ahead and get buses and other vehicles back in.
The pedestrianisation of Bisazza Street must have been one of the best decisions—if not the only one—taken by the authorities in connection to Sliema.
The experts claim that if a big project in Tower Road (the old naval hospital and Piazzetta) is given the green light then more trouble will brew.
(Another disclaimer is needed here: I live next to Piazzetta but hands on heart I speak without bias – I would feel the same if I lived in a cave in the outer reaches of Bubaqra).
If building more apartments spells trouble wouldn’t it be preferable for the experts to advise the authorities to stop the development? I have nothing against development but if it causes congestion maybe we should think twice or thrice?
The experts also say the Midi tunnel is always a problem and the traffic always grinds to a halt there. I disagree—and I use it all the time. The traffic is usually stuck beyond it, as far as the Ferries traffic lights, then moves freely. It’s the way the experts devised the traffic flow into The Strand that causes the problem most of the time.
Therefore if our traffic experts do some proper homework they could solve that problem without ruining a welcome spot of carlessness..