Tripoli breaths fresh air for a day!

If you are in Lebanon and anywhere near one if it's large cities, you simply can not miss the traffic jams citizens and residents constantly face. In Beirut, specifically, things could not get any worse... no wait they could, they built a bridge in the middle of the highway! That said though, hope shines from northern Lebanon through the Carfree initiative. Now, let's not build castles in the sand, the initiative does not promise a solution, it's simply trying one. Specifically, a solution that was suggested previously by Architect Sandra Richani through her blog "Beirut the Fantastic". In her post, which you can check here, Richani analyses the problem, highlights its monetary cost and suggests, what I think, is a wonderful solution. Now, while the government still turns deaf ears and blind eyes toward anything that could develop this country, someone in Tripoli decided to listen and give it a try. Even if it is for a  day.

So the non-political initiative of Tripoli Carefree City will come to life on Nov 12 and 13. The planners of this event, want to stop traffic for 1 day in Tripoli and Mina and turn the city into a green space for its residents to enjoy. Accompanying the halt of traffic, are cultural activities and live performances from different artists and bands, all aiming at bringing awareness to environmental issues facing the city.  You can learn more about this great intiative by checking out their presentation, and show your support by liking their facebook page here, and following them on twitter here. 

Hopefully, this concept can be rolled out to other major cities in Lebanon, specially Beirut, making Sandra Richani's dream and ours a reality!

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.