$40-million dollar Orchard Road Facelift Boon or Bust?

Imagine walking along Orchard Road at 8pm, admiring the lights and bustling nightlife, and find yourself crashing straight into a glass panel standing in the middle of nowhere. This was exactly what happened to me when I visited Orchard Road after the makeover. I had expected the $40-million dollar package to have improved Orchard Road significantly, but the results were, in the most optimistic sense, disappointing. The new improvements were no more than useless, impractical and over budgeted ornaments and the money was definitely not well spent.


Think about what the $40-million dollars can do. It could be included in the stimulus package to revive the Singaporean economy, it can be used to subsidize costs of workers further and, to say the very least, it can be used to construct NeWater plants to make Singapore more self sustaining, vital in the long run. Instead, the money were used to construct beautiful roadblocks along the pavement, compacting the crowds of Orchard Road even further. These all provide significantly more long term benefits than flower totems and glass panels, assuming that the glass panels don't shatter. The glass panels will not attract a significant influx of tourists, unlike... say the Singapore Flyer. Therefore, despite whatever cultural value they may have, they failed to achieve their main goal, to make Orchard Road more attractive to tourists. Therefore, it was extremely unwise to waste $40-million on these impractical decorations, especially in times of economic crisis.


Impractical? Of course it is impractical, it not only squeezes the enormous crowds even tighter, it also creates invisible obstacles along the length of Orchard Road, resulting in multiple collisions with the road hazards. In fact, even Singaporeans expressed their concerns that people may run straight into the glass panels after a night of partying. Regardless of the cost, the renovations were impractical and aggrevated the already atrotious traffic conditions at Orchard Road.


However, the flower totems and glass panels do represent our country and provides a rather significant amount of cultural value, promoting our vibrant and unique culture, as shown by our "revolutionary" renovations like the unpreceedented glass panels and flower totems.They help to enhance and bring out our unique culture and our difference from the other tourist hotspots. This enhancement of our culture could hopefully bring in tourists and make them get into the shopping mood, elevating spendature and eventually pay for itself with the increased number of airline passengers.


Despite the increased influx, the $40-million dollar budget is just too large for an appropriate investment. For something the size of the facelift implimented, it should cost at most, one quater of the cost. Even an underground carpark to relieve the lack of parking spaces cost less than $40-million. With glass and pottery prices at their lows, it is extremely unlikely that the facelift will cost $40-million. The reduce in budget could be used to salvage the financial and economic sectors, helping Singapore to rise out of this long depression sooner.


If you had $40-million dollars, what would you do to improve Singapore? Would you prefer to help the unemployed and needy or squander your money on an improvement that most Singaporeans did not even notice? The choice is obvious. Now, I hope that you will now understand why I was unhappy with the facelift, especially when I crashed into the glass panel outside Ngee Ann City.