A work in progress

by Matt Nash December 9, 2014

written by Matt Nash December 9, 2014

(Greg Demarque | Executive)

Bilal Hamad, president of the Beirut Municipality, talks with Executive about parks, sidewalk renovations, the city budget and the increasing number of revenue-generating towers within the city limits. Back in 2012, you launched the “Beirut is Amazing” project aimed at adding and improving green spaces in the city. How much are park renovations going to cost the city? $50 million, but we are not paying for all of the work. We are going to our friends for design donations, and sometimes maintenance of the parks after they are redesigned, as was the case with the René Moawad/Sanayeh Garden. Why? Because that’s how we can get the best. We can bridge over all of the routine administrative processes within the municipality and outside. Instead of going through a tender, where we would get someone who doesn’t necessarily offer the highest quality or best design, but the lowest price, we have

Matt Nash

Matt was Executive's Economics & Policy Editor and Real Estate Editor from May 2014 to November 2017. He began reporting in Lebanon in April 2007, and his coverage focused on oil and gas, public policy and human rights.

4 comments

Fadi December 9, 2014 - 2:56 PM

Looking at what was achieved in 2014 in the area discussed above (public spaces, parks, sidewalks, public transportation) as an indicator to the pace of work of the municipality, I think the same projects will be presented end of 2015 as to be completed in 2016.
I hope I will be proven wrong

Habib Battah (@habib_b) February 25, 2015 - 4:47 PM

Great observation. In early 2012 the Mayor promised the park would open “by the end of the year” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZHVHDtHd7yU
In fact the terms “by the end of the year”, “next year” and “over the coming months” are used quite often as I found in the telecom sector, where we should have had fiber to home several years ago http://www.beirutreport.com/2013/05/when-will-fiber-be-ready.html

Omar December 11, 2014 - 6:27 AM

Dr Hamad is professional and wish him all the best.
Pleased to hear about the budget surplus also which seem to be set aside for disaster recovery and/or large transport developments. So much can be done to relief Lebanese from their daily suffering on the roads.
I wonder what are the plans for Beirut-Khalde route incl. tunnels in terms of disaster recovery (traffic accidents mainly and for sure rain water)?

Habib Battah (@habib_b) February 25, 2015 - 4:55 PM

Very interesting piece. It’s great that the mayor can read off a laundry list of projects with undefined completion dates but where is the detail on spending, bidding, oversight and “donations.” In addition to how surplus will be sent, what about the $200 million spent annually? Where can citizens access how that money is spent and how projects are chosen and what if any authorities are overseeing that spending?

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A work in progress

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