‘Rethink decision on Garapan public market’

While I can understand and sympathize with many of the decisions the new governor has taken—and while I am glad that he has shown the ability to take tough decisions—it seems to me that he is not well advised. This seem so because of the following case: Moving the proposed Garapan public market to another location is a decision that the governor should not have made.

The best long-term (i.e., most sustainable) value to the CNMI is to build upon what already exists rather than building new things that are so culturally neutral that they could be anywhere in the world. Over the longer term, the CNMI cannot compete with those large places where one finds the same thing no matter where they are. This “Pizza Hutting” of the world (Pizza Hut’s corporate parent is the world’s largest restaurateur, bigger even than McDonald’s) is fine if you are a commodity player.

If you are not a commodity player, your best bet is to build upon that which gives you “niche market” value. What might be in the CNMI’s “niche”? For one, there is the history of the Garapan Fishing Base. Of course there is also the 350 years of Spanish cultural dominance, the battles of World War II, and the strong ties between the CNMI and the other former Trust Territories, etc.

Who says that you cannot have a fish market near a hotel? The fish market in Port Vila, Vanuatu, is within a hundred meters of top quality French restaurants and a new hotel (not to mention the Ministry of Finance across the street). If San Francisco can have hotels beside famous Fisherman’s Wharf (and fish markets); if Japanese urban (and many rural) fish markets are not too distant from hotels; if fish markets weren’t near hotels along the Riviera, then life in those places would be a LOT more boring.

If the push to move the market comes from the investors, one needs in turn to ask those investors: “Who visits Cleveland?” It is not a noted tourism city. However, I have visited Cleveland. I made two or three trips there when I was studying at Ohio State U. It is an okay place, but then I had friends there who made the visits enjoyable; the place could have been anywhere else and been as enjoyable.

Cleveland gave the world the first river to catch fire (due to pollution) by following some wrong paradigms of “development.” In and of itself, and despite Ohio being a “four letter word,” if it had not followed those paradigms Cleveland could today be a lot more than it is. The same is true for the CNMI. Remember that “development” is the same thing as human development (which is in turn greater than economic development), and you can avoid unsatisfactory detours such as Cleveland’s.

From a planning standpoint, and from a human development standpoint, it is a serious mistake to force the separation of fish markets from fishermen’s wharves. To force such a move would be to follow the same paradigm that inspired Cleveland’s leaders down their less sustainable path over the years. Rather, the governor should let the fishermen decide whether or not to move: If proper hygiene is employed, there is no reason that a fish market can’t sit near a hotel. Only if the fishermen/their marketeers will not employ ‘state-of-the-art’ hygiene should they be forced to move.

Charles G. Kick III, Ph.D.
Kaimuki, HI