Abstract
Towards the end of the 1970s administrators in some large cities in Saudi Arabia started a unilateral campaign calling for more spending on city beautification. This campaign was purported to be in response to public demand as well as to enhance the urban environment It was manifested in large scale models, forms, and reliefs, depicting nature and cultural norms for Saudi society. The hypothesis of this paper is that such a campaign comes neither in response to public demand nor is it supported by the public. In fact, such a campaign may have been implemented at the expense of other urban environmental priorities. The data collected includes: (i) an observational survey of beautifying forms and shapes; (ii) a media survey of public and official reporting of beautification versus other environmental priorities. The survey findings support this hypothesis and point out the need for reforms in public policy related to the management of city affairs.