I came across this letter to the editor from Karen Asfour today while browsing through the JT website. I thought I’d share.

Street of Culture
Where is the traffic police? Where are the people within the municipality who decided that the best place to have the “Cultural Street”, resulting in single lane traffic, is Shmeisani? Have any of them seen the horrific traffic jams that have become a daily occurrence?

You’d have to see it to believe it: cars backed up and honking, angry and frustrated drivers on every street in the Shemisani network. God help anyone who might have an emergency (or appointment); the possibility of surviving the up to 30-min wait to get out of there is absolutely nil.

I have found my own solution to deal with the problem and I would advise the “powers to be” to advocate the same for other frustrated drivers in the area. The answer is knitting! I take mine along with me and sometimes I am able to knit a whole scarf while waiting for the jam to unsnarl. If drivers are supplied with yarn and knitting needles they will knit instead of honk and those responsible for the mess can forget about correcting the problem. Simple isn’t it?

Source: [Jordan Times]

Indeed. This extension that I usually call “Share3 elSakhafeh,” or the street of idiocy, instead of “Share3 el Thaqafeh,” or street of culture, is simply a waste of space. It really is a challenge to find any cultural item on this stretch of cement and pavement loosely dubbed a cultural venue.

Who in his right mind would think that Shmeisani is a suitable place for such a street? Are not those working at Greater Amman Municipality aware that there are better, more authentic neighborhoods in the capital more suited for such a designation than the overcrowded, extremely noisy Shmeisani? Why couldn’t they do this in a nice area such as Jabal Amman or Jabal al Weibdeh par example? Ah, I could go on forever about this, but who listens?!?!

On a lighter note, I thought the author’s knitting idea is brilliant. I usually substitute that with reading the daily paper.