Meeting Reminders

There will be a Beautify CNMI General meeting tonight at 7 PM at Cafe in the Park in Garapan.

There will be an Beautify CNMI Chair meeting tonight at 5:30 at Abyss in Garapan.

See you there.

Angelo

Leaving Island-Last Clean Up and Party!!!

The Reynolds Family is leaving January 16th to go back to Washington State.

They are hosting a cleanup at the Lighthouse and going away bbq after on January 13th. We'll start cleaning up around 3 p.m. and will watch the sunset from one of the most spectacular locations on island. We'll need chairs, tables, coolers, food to share, a grill to cook on, candles, and flashlights.

Email Bree at bree.reynolds@gmail.com if you can bring chairs, a couple of tables, a cooler, or a grill.

Imagine the New Garapan

The Garapan Tourist District should be the premier real estate in Saipan. Sandwiched between the Saipan Lagoon and a National Park, with easy walking access to several hotels, an elementary school, health clubs, restaurants, bars, shopping centers, and a three mile long walking path fronting the ocean, it should be the perfect place to raise a family.

But it’s not.

It’s the manky armpit of our once beautiful island.

In his weekly column in the Saipan Tribune, Bruce Bateman recently recounted a conversation we had concerning Garapan. We were discussing ways to make Garapan more palatable for families and tourists alike and I offered three simple solutions that would lead to a "new" Garapan. I suggested that we move prostitution out of Garapan, move several government offices into Garapan, and entice young professionals to make Garapan their residence.

I’d say close your eyes and try to imagine my vision, but then you’d have a really hard time reading this...but imagine what living in Garapan could be like:

Imagine if you are a young professional with a small one- or two-bedroom apartment on the third floor of one of the buildings in the "new" Garapan. You share it with your husband and your daughter.

You could wake up first thing in the morning and go for a six-mile run along the Saipan Bike path, then jog over to Club Elan for some weightlifting or yoga.

Fresh from a shower at the spa, you walk over to one of the Chinese restaurants and have breakfast for $4.

You walk back to the apartment to help your husband get your daughter ready for school. Your daughter is pretty good in the morning and can get herself ready; it’s your husband who really needs the help getting out the door.

Your daughter likes you to walk her to school, which is right across the street, so you take her over, kiss her goodbye, wish her luck on her test, and then go to work.

You work at MVA, which along with the Saipan Mayor’s office and several other government entities are now located in Garapan. Instead of driving, you walk over to work, strolling through the brand new Visitor’s Center on your way to your desk.

Around noon one of your coworkers asks if you want Japanese, Korean or Thai for lunch. You respond with, "How about Italian?" Your husband, who works for the Mayor, walks over to meet you.

When your daughter gets out of school, you are able to take a 15-minute break to pick her up. You take her home, then she goes out to play with her friends. They ride bikes through the National Park and then go swimming.

After work, some of your coworkers want to go for some happy hour drinks, but you promised your daughter you’d take her to the Thursday street market.

Alright, open your eyes.

In my vision, almost everything except for the government offices being located in Garapan is already true. It already exists. We can do this. If we can move the prostitution out, move several government offices including MVA in, and get young professionals to live here, we can save Garapan.

Beautify CNMI has done a lot of work in the last two years to clean up Garapan, with our biggest support coming from Rep. Waki, Rep. Kaipat, Friends of the Mariana Islands, Kinpachi Restaurant, Hyatt, and Fiesta Resort. There is still a lot of work to be done, so if you are interested in helping, please attend 2008’s first Beautify CNMI meeting. We meet on Thursday, Jan. 10, 2008, at 7pm at Cafe at the Park in Garapan.

I hope to see you there.

Angelo Villagomez
Executive Director
MINA

Beautify CNMI in the Philippines

I received this email from Beautify CNMI volunteer Captain Carl today:

Angelo,

Another "Beautify CNMI" across borders, a Liang Liang tree
planted on the Farm At San Benito, Batangas, PI. The tree is used in
natural healing. I am wondering if it goes here on Saipan. Will
check later this week. Have a good evening.

Carl

Thanks, Carl!

Quoted by Bruce Bateman

From the Saipan Tribune:

Revitalization

While eating something-on-a-stick at the Thursday Street Market, I ran into Angelo Villagomez. As we sat and discussed how to save the world, the conversation came around to oldtown Garapan revitalization. Angelo espoused a couple of ideas that made a lot of sense to me and I will pass them on to you for your edification. (Notice how I deftly laid it off on Angelo in case you think the idea is wacky).

He believes that to make the place better, jobs, like government agencies, and other office type private job generating businesses need to move into the Garapan downtown area. Tourists would like to participate in a “real” local experience, not just a tourist sham experience put up for their benefit. Tourists want to meld into an already existing unique cultural enclave a la San Francisco.cable cars, rice-a-roni, wharf, Nob Hill, China Town etc. Tourists come to see the local ambiance in a location, not to create it.

Also needed are people to move their residences into this area, real working folks, living there full time. Angelo has already moved in there for whatever nefarious reasons (kidding) and would like to see others do the same. Real residents walking the streets (no, not street walkers), using the business facilities and adding foot traffic to a sometimes barren area will make it a pleasant and comfortable feeling place to go.

He has a good point on both counts, if you ask me. So MVA, find yourselves a new or now empty building somewhere in Garapan and move on in.

Adopt a Flame Tree Update

In 2007 Beautify CNMI planted about 200 Flame Trees (I think) as part of our Adopt-a-Flame Tree Program. 6 of those trees were planted in American Memorial Park last June during our Micronesia Challenge Summer Camp and they were adopted by Barney Ono, a Japanese citizen living in Japan who has kept track of Beautify CNMI via the Internet.

I had the chance to visit those six Flame Trees earlier this morning and I am happy to report that they are all doing very well. This picture was taken next to the largest of the six.

Barney, the next time you visit Saipan, make sure you look for your six healthy Flame Trees growing in our local National Park.

LOST DOG - BRUNO

Hey Beautify CNMI! and Members of the Community:

You know the routine - when an animal goes missing - we as a community do our best to look out for one another and find that animal!

PAWS received an email today about Bruno, a chocolate lab that went missing yesterday. There is a chance that he decided to take a walk on his own and that he will return, but just in case - please keep your eyes open for Bruno! His family is horribly sick over his disappearance. For more information, please visit the PAWS blog at www.paws-saipan.blogspot.com.

If you have any information on Bruno, please contact Willie at 483-9459 or Louisa at 483-8946. Alternatively, you may contact me at 286-0970.

Thank you for being the eyes, ears, and heart of Saipan.