Safa is one of Jeddah's new districts, but many shortcoming dog the area. Residents are complaining of noise pollution, shortage of parking lots, uncollected garbage, illegal workers roaming the area, excavations and high rents. Maher Showlaq, a resident of the district since 1994, said, “Al-Safa is considered to be one of the posh and beautiful districts of the city. Undoubtedly, it has a big area that spans from Al-Arbaeen Street to Breiman Bridge. However, some services are lacking and there are violations. Foremost of these are the rented and government schools and their location in residential areas.” Showlaq called for shifting the schools outside the district. “We filed complaints to the authorities concerned, but we have not received any response till now,” he said. Fawzi Izzeddin, another resident, highlighted the problem of traffic jams due to many malls and restaurants in the area. The perennial roadwork going on at snail's pace throughout the year has aggravated the problem. “We are sick and tired of reading the motto ‘We work for your sake and we regret the inconvenience.' The motto is there on every signboard of these companies carrying out the road maintenance work. We see it so often that we have learnt it by heart. This motto angers me,” said Izzeddin. Mohammed Al-Ghamdi, another resident of the district, said vendors and street hawkers have become a menace. It is very common to find illegal workers hanging out in front of shops for petty work. Naji Al-Johani said authorities must do something about these illegal workers and overstayers. He said several of these workers sell foodstuff on carts to students and children, who do not know the source of these foods and how they were prepared. Al-Johani also bemoaned the neglect of alleys where garbage remains uncollected for days, and where parks are ill-maintained so much so that some of these are being used as parking lots.
