Letter

Letter to the Mayor of Jeddah

Mohammed Ali Al-Zahrani

Date of publication: 20 July 2026 23:58 KSA

We congratulate you on the precious trust as you assume the reins of the municipality in a city unlike any other. Ambition here does not stop at the limits of traditional administration, but extends to restore the spirit of 'Jeddah' that was lost amid the clamor of concrete and the dust of haphazard expansion. Today we are not talking about street maintenance or road paving; we are talking about the 'identity' of a city struggling to breathe from under the rubble of a rigid concrete jungle.

For many years, the municipality's attention has been confined to the western 'coastal strip,' as if Jeddah extends only where the sea extends. While the waterfronts boast gardens, its eastern, northeastern, and southern neighborhoods groan under the weight of visual drought. They are vast residential areas lacking 'humanization' of place and quality of life. No park to embrace the young, no pedestrian pathways to entice passersby, no environmental sanitation befitting the dignity of residents. These neighborhoods have turned into 'concrete tombs' lacking the most basic standards of quality of life; creating an aesthetic class gap that split the city into a 'velvety west' and a 'forgotten east.' Jeddah today is experiencing a severe visual and architectural 'identity crisis.' Buildings have become a hybrid that neither expresses the rich history of the Hijaz nor adopts the confident modernity of the future. This loss extends to the 'identity of roads'; they are neither high-speed roads with global fluidity nor commercial streets with precise urban planning. The absence of a 'unified fingerprint' has turned our streets into distorted spaces lacking the visual unity that gives major cities their prestige.

Fifteen years, and promises of the 'Jeddah Metro' project echo in corridors like a bodiless echo. Billions have been spent on studies and consultations, yet the citizen still burns under the suffocating sun of congestion, dependent on private cars in the absence of an efficient public transport network. The delay of this strategic project is not just a traffic disruption; it is a drain on the economy, time, and nerves, and a real obstacle to transforming Jeddah into a smart and productive city. As for the dilemma that thwarted your predecessors, it is the 'excavation plague' and the rapid deterioration of asphalt that has become a genetic fingerprint haunting the streets of the Bride. The deterioration of streets is not just poor execution; it is evidence of 'administrative and tactical failure' accumulated over decades. How can a city that hosts the most important ports and airports have its streets become 'traps' for vehicles, a source of daily waste and visual pollution? Your Excellency the Mayor.. Jeddah today does not need glossy promises; it needs a 'restructuring of the soul.' It needs someone to plant trees in the east as he plants towers in the west, to free the metro project from paper shackles, to close the file of excavations, stormwater drainage, and to eliminate rodents and pollution with the seriousness of the strong and trustworthy. Jeddah awaits you to restore its usurped 'humanity'; so it may no longer remain a city we inhabit.. but become a city that inhabits us... May God help you and guide your steps.

Mayor of Jeddah, Jeddah Municipality