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Dumb idea
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Posted on Jul 28 2005
I didn’t think MPLA could come up with a dumber idea than a massage parlor on Managaha, but unfortunately I’ve underestimated that agency. Of course, I’m talking about the lease of public land opposite the Last Command Post for a billboard advertising “life prolonging energy supplements.” When most municipalities in the world are trying to figure out how to limit billboards it is unbelievable that MPLA would be encouraging them anywhere, much less in one of the areas of the island that is not only relatively pristine but historically significant to locals, as well as the American and Japanese participants of World War II. For “$500” MPLA has managed to offend just about everyone—certainly not an easy task. And what is the “$500”? Per month? Per year? Forever? I hate to give MPLA any ideas, but what’s next? A toxic waste recycling center on top of Forbidden Island? An underwater karaoke bar in the Grotto? Bungee jumping off Suicide Cliff? A go-kart track in the middle of American Memorial Park?
This is a classic example of the left hand not knowing what the right hand is doing. All leases of public land should be reviewed by the other pertinent agencies. In this case it should have been Marianas Visitors Authority, but that agency was in the dark as everyone else. If the Coastal Resources Management Office can require that permit applications for even temporary projects such as filming on a beach be published, then MPLA certainly can do the same. The public should have the right to comment on all proposed public land leases, regardless of size.
One bright side of the current economic situation in the CNMI is that it presents a perfect opportunity to clean up some of the squalor created over the last 25 years, and to create the “world-class” resort destination everyone is always talking about. But MPLA seems to want to go in the opposite direction. Remember Guam’s old slogan, “Guam, Where America’s Day Begins”? How about something similar for us, such as “Saipan, Where the Third World begins”?
Ron Fusco
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