(11)Orchard Road Facelift

I fully agree that the $40-million Orchard Road Facelift is unworthy. The costly makeover is neither noticeable nor practical .It has also caused a lot of inconvenience to both citizens and tourists. Moreover, the process even exacerbates the recession in business.

Firstly, the expensive makeover in Orchard Road is unnoticeable and impractical. A successful change should be easily noticed by people, but the makeover is so inconspicuous .According to a recent survey that 40 out of 100 people polled along Orchard Road did not notice anything different. Consequently, few people can name where the $40 million was put into. Some citizens only see some slight changes. Nicholas Poh, 18,said:"I only see the glass panels, that`s all."Another Clinical sales executive Juniper Isaac,37,said "When I came here , it seems like there`s no big difference and it`s something that you would not notice unless you looked closely."Apart from being unable to spot the changes , some people also found the new installations fault. The glass panels are impractical, especially at night .They may be smashed by some people who get drunk and others may get harmed. Although the glass panels are designed for safety, the money will then be wasted and the cracks can influence the beauty of Singapore. After all, the purpose of the expensive makeover is to change the road into a more beautiful condition, but it may not do so .Besides, those totems also affect people in the way. The totems make the road more colorful, however, they block the walkway and cause inconvenience to passers-by. A student said that the changes did not help pedestrians ,and the flower totems blocked the sidewalk. It is evident that the expensive facelift was not designed markedly and practically.

Secondly, the renovation in Orchard Road affected citizens and tourists badly. The noise made by construction influenced people`s daily life.the discordant noise inevitably made citizens annoyed. Mrs Jackie Stevens said :"We thought Orchard Road would be prettier and nicer,because we saw it in the travel books.I did not know there was going to be so much noise and construction . As the construction went on , there were many areas blocked.As a result of that , neither citizens nor tourists could find their way around easily .This caused people get disappointed and their daily lives were badly affected.Obviously , the makeover has a negative effect to people`s lives.

There were people who found the makeover good since Orchard is the primary shopping belt of Singapore and it is a good idea to beautify it .However I would like to say that it will not do as what we think.The process itself even plays a negative role of giving worse burden on the plunging business.As the economic slowdown makes the number of tourists fall,there are less shoppers either.The large quantity of money spent on the makeover will not attract more tourists to consume,but the process and inconvenience make people visit the Orchard Road even less.Together with the large amount of money wasted in useless infrastructure,the whole facelift will lead to less consumption which is a negative cause to worse business.

To conclude ,the Orchard Road makeover is inconspicuous and impractical,with the influence to citizens and tourists ,it will result in worse business.In this way ,the facelift is unworthy and we should spend the money on the aspects which do give people convenience and beauty in life.