Wednesday, June 23, 2010

The 5 Good Things About Manila (Before Lim Resurfaced and Destroyed It All)

I was really hoping the old geezer would be shut out of the mayoralty race last month but it seems Manileños are blind to progress. They want someone with no real plan other than to run an urban zone--the nation's capital for Pete's sake--like a post-civilization tribe. Now, we have a once-thriving city with more shabby reeking corners than ever. Forget commercial areas, that underpass is supposed to have crumbling floors, and promenade ain't but a cold drink sold in the middle of now jammed streets that used to be for pedestrians only. Any and all kinds of aesthetic reminders of the previous administration are to be dismantled and replaced with...nothing. Wait, strike that, he's replaced them with statues of just about everybody from his kindergarten class right on Roxas Boulevard. And then he gets them inaugurated on Monday morning rush hour! Don't you see? The man is the city's number one vandal! What commerce? What order? Manila is his playground and he'll mess it up where and when he wants to.

Sorry I get all emotional. It's because I really have fond memories from college of walking down TM Kalaw, UN Avenue or even Mabini and discovering pleasant surprises. I'm glad I did that when it was safer to do so. Here are is my list of five things Manila is missing now. Please feel free to share yours if you have 'em, too.

1. Getting to walk around without mendicants at every corner. Yes, the Atienza years had them but they were at least regulated. You didn't see them reclining along Baywalk then, did you?

2. Baywalk was a delightful place to bring family, day OR night. There was a tram, there were cops around, and people got to sit al fresco and take in the sights. You wouldn't be stupid enough to do that now, heck no. The place is a dark, seedy strip with all kinds of unscrupulous characters--gangbangers, muggers, streetwalkers--much like pre-Giuliani Manhattan.

3. Plaza Rajah Sulayman was bustling with regular arts and culture activities. I would pass this area on the way to the office and nearly every week there was an OB van covering a festival or whatnot. I wonder if that fountain there, too, has become another white elephant.

3. I was excited about what was being built at any random area of the city. If I saw heavy equipment or a maintenance crew, I knew something was being improved. Parks and playgrounds were being put up or cleaning was being done. These scenes now highlight Lim's typical male insecurity as they dismantle anything that offered convenience to the public and also because Atienza built them.

4. It was such an easy commute from Cavite; you took a bus and land on Plaza Lawton. Also, if you wanted to go up to Tagaytay on a whim, here is where you boarded them. But the Mayor has since decided that the solution to heavy traffic along Taft Avenue is to ban provincial buses from Manila altogether. Seriously, that's what the news said was his reason.

5. City Hall had enough judgement then to remove banners and signs after their timeliness had passed. But how long are you planning to keep the Cory tributes along Roxas Boulevard, Mayor McGeeze? Until after Baby James takes his oath of office? It's not honoring anyone now, if you ask me. Please put them away.

Time will tell if the city's administration will at all make long-term improvements or just whitewash everything that's wrong. Dear Manileños, not another term please! If you really love your town and are not just a thoughtless transient, tell Mayor Lim to grow a brain.

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