Parking on paved sidewalks banned

Parking on  newlypaved sidewalks along Osmeña Boulevard is  prohibited to avoid damaging new  red bricks laid there, Cebu City Mayor Michael Rama said yesterday.

The mayor ordered the City Traffic Management Office (Citom) to tow away vehicles on the site.

He also told the city police to patrol the entire stretch of Osmeña Blvd. to prevent vandals from futher damaging the new lampposts.

The Beautiful Cebu Movement, which raised millions in donations to revitalize the sidewalks of the boulevard, has complained that P10,000 lampposts were missing or damaged even before they could be formally lighted.

The mayor asked barangay captains to help protect the ed sidewalks and  lampposts to encourage the Beautiful Cebu Movement to extend their beautification efforts to other city streets.

Rama asked the movement to also help beautify B. Rodriguez St., Mango Avenue, Escario St., Gorordo Avenue and Salinas Drive among others.

Mariquita Salimbangon-Yeung, chairperson of the Beautiful Cebu Movement Foundation, and some members inspected Osmeña Boulevard last Saturday morning.

Yeung said they  completed 72 percent of the revitalization works and  hope to finish the whole project in a month.

Lighting of the 175 lampposts installed along the newly paved sidewalks would follow.

She said they wanted visitors coming to Cebu City to attend the thanksgiving Mass for the canonization of Blessed Pedro Calungsod to see a beautiful city.

Yeung and other members of the movement were dismayed to find out during the inspection that a lamppost installed near the Police Regional Office 7 was missing while other nearby lampposts were vandalized and the glass casings were broken.

They also saw some vehicles parked on the newly paved sidewalks that damaged the red bricks.

Senior Supt. Ramon Melvin Buenafe, Cebu City police chief, said one  “missing” lamppost was kept in the  Citom engineering department as evidence of a vehicular accident.

A motorist knocked down  the lampposts  two weeks ago.

Rama said Citom was told about the beautification project last year to help prohibit parking on the sidewalks.

“I think I’ll just have to remind them,” the mayor told reporters. /Doris C. Bongcac, Chief of Reporters