Areas surrounding airports give visitors their first glimpse and impression of a city, and the Jeddah airport area has for decades given the wrong impression to millions of visitors every year. Poor city planning has turned the airport area into an eyesore containing an unplanned industrial zone of car workshops and warehouses, rundown coffee shops and restaurants and illegal workers. All of this is on view to those traveling to Makkah along the Haramain Highway. The huge fire that tore through a tire shop Wednesday and gutted many other nearby workshops has again revealed the poor planning of a city that is still recovering from a flood disaster, aggravated by a poor drainage network. “If this is what visitors see when they arrive in Jeddah, then this is the first impression they have of the whole city,” one resident of the area said. “This is not an area rarely seen by officials like the poorly-planned districts in south Jeddah,” said Muhammad Al-Mutairi. As visitors leave the airport and take the Haramain Highway, the first thing they see is the mega Mall of Arabia, a beautifully-designed modern structure. Less than one kilometer away to the east towards the highway lies a maze of unplanned residential and industrials areas starting with the Sumaidat neighborhood. “This neighborhood has no infrastructure at all and is plagued with thousands of illegal workers who pose a security threat,” Al-Mutairi added. The workers live here close to their jobs in the industrial zone that has been for decades now a haven for criminal activities, he said. Robbery, secret gambling dens, illegal phone wiring, and the vandalizing of public property are among the crimes committed by these workers. “You can see them everywhere selling everything on the streets also,” said Fawaz Al-Mutairi, another helpless resident of the area. “When there is a big soccer match, you just don't want to be here as fans gather in the thousands to cheer their teams at the coffee shops with big screens,” he added. “I'm just wondering why the government is quiet about it.” The poorly-planned industrial zone is a threat not only to the neighboring residential areas, but to the airport itself, said Abdullah Al
