A walk to remember

Like many who did not want to face the grim Holy Week traffic fueled by the yearly exodus out of the metropolis, I opted to stay in the city. I figured the searing summer heat of tree-challenged Metro Manila was penitencia enough for me. Besides, I had a ton of writing to catch up on, not to mention house-cleaning to get my perpetually de-shelved shelves of books and research material in order. (It’s called research because every time I need a particular archival photo or clipping I have to spend hours re-searching where I put it.)

Well, I did get some writing done and managed to put some sense of order into my working space at home, but by the weekend, I was bored stiff. I decided to drop by my folks’ place to invite them out for a little pasyal. I whisked my dad, mom, son and niece off to check out Manila’s new seaside promenade. Passing by the place a number of times in the past month made me curious as it did look inviting enough (despite what seems to a lot of people to be the most strombotic street lights on the planet).

We decided to park at the CCP because there was an existing promenade there (leading to the Corregidor ferries) and a branch of Figaro, where we could have merienda. The connection to the actual Roxas Boulevard promenade was not complete yet, so we had to maneuver our way past the Navy and Manila Yacht Club frontages, both of which could be made friendlier to promenaders.

Esplanade Espesyal

We got to the promenade (or esplanade, as the English would call it) after a few minutes’ walk, and it was what Mayor Lito Atienza advertised it to be (on his large, thankfully temporary, billboard). It was wide, well-paved and adequately furnished with benches and kiosks. The promenade was paved edge to edge with almost no greenery left except for the palms. The mayor’s urban designers seemed to have anticipated heavy pedestrian use, which justifies this strategy. It turned out to be true – half of Manila turned out for that weekend. Still, there could have been a planting verge left on the street side, to serve as a buffer to boulevard traffic and the dust it generates.

The paving material chosen was locally-manufactured interlocking tiles (very good quality ones!) laid on a sand bed and not set in concrete. This allows rainwater to percolate down to the soil to feed the trees and lessen the load on the storm water drainage system. This should be made de rigueur for large paved surfaces in tropical cities like Manila. Parking lots, plazas and sidewalks should be paved with this material. They are also removable to allow for utility cables or pipes to be laid without requiring the mess and noise of regular jack hammering. There are also types of this paving with holes in them that can be filled with tufts of grass yet allow cars to still park and maneuver on them (also great for greening and cooling our presently hot parking lots!).

There were lots of park benches, tables and chairs (beside the snack kiosks) provided – thankfully, they were not bolted down. This is the best way to accommodate social interaction. Snack kiosks could be found in clusters with their own tables and chairs. The variety of offerings was great but there should be some control that prohibits tables and chairs along the seaside edge, which should be left clear for promenaders. Service access and the screening of "back of house" for these kiosks need looking into. Also, the variety of the different benches and shade structures could have been coordinated with some semblance of thematic continuity, but I guess that’s better than not having them at all.

Of Balls And Mayor Lacson

The promenade’s other embellishments like colonnades and planter boxes seemed a bit out of place. The free-standing columns and smallish wood planters need structures to relate to that are similar in scale. The stone balls are a bit too big but not bad as urban eye-candy. The lights are another matter. Some find them much too garish but they look fine at night. A slightly more restrained design would have worked better.

The Arsenio Lacson statue is a nice touch that proves that the current administration has some sense of history (though not for other heritage sites and structures – but then Roxas Boulevard is less politically complicated). Some passers-by wondered who this guy reading the paper was, which shows the need for incorporating local urban history in our children’s (and even adult) education. For those of you who don’t know, Lacson was Manila’s best mayor who oversaw its resurrection from the war. He lorded it over in the ’50s and initiated projects like the Manila Hospital, the Manila Zoo and the improvement of police and sanitation services (when both services were still under the office of the mayor).

The promenade’s connectivity with the city is lacking. Pedestrian crossings are few and far between. My family troupe had to scramble across, notwithstanding the reduced traffic because of the holidays. (Our goal was the Aristocrat with its famous chicken barbeque and halo-halo.)

Overhead or tunnel connections should be considered. This was actually the recommendation five years ago in one of the original schemes for the promenade upgrading that the Department of Tourism had commissioned. (Improvement master plans for the boulevard were mulled since the time of Villegas, who wanted to reclaim more land to double the width of the promenade, even going as far as trying to recover the land donated to the American embassy.)

Wanted: Bicycle Lanes

All these little observations belie the fact that the mayor’s urban design and landscape architectural team still needs to hone their craft a bit more. I understand that they have been sent abroad to look at other city’s urban designs. The mayor could have just looked locally for there are a number of good designers he could have tapped – members of the Philippine Association of Landscape Architects and the Philippine Institute of Environmental Designers. Still, it is the city’s best effort so far and it does address people’s needs adequately. The mayor was the first to ever actually implement major improvements since the boulevard was built by President Quezon before the war.

There must have been over 20,000 people along the promenade that late afternoon. Many went to enjoy the sight of Manila Bay’s famous fiery sunset. There were whole families, young couples and even tourists. There were men and boys fishing, roller-skaters and cyclists. Another improvement would have been dedicated bicycling lanes and places to park these bikes.

The best improvement would, of course, be to clean the city air so that people can bike or walk its streets and parks without anti-SARS masks. Almost half of all vehicles in the country ply Manila streets and they produce carbon monoxide, ozone-depleting carbons, and dust that make the city one of the most polluted in the world.

Firefly Fiesta

In relation to this, the annual "Tour of the Fireflies: Peace and Pedals" will be held tomorrow, starting off from the Marikina Riverbanks (registration is at 5:30 a.m.). The tour, which started in 1999, is one of the fastest growing annual environmental events. It has seen participation grow from 500 riders in 1999 to over 1,500 last year.

The tour is named after the lowly but beautiful firefly, an endangered species due to the city’s worsening pollution. The firefly is an indicator of how bad our air is. A University of the Philippines study on pollution gives our city air another eight years before it is totally unfit to support life. It’s that bad.

There used to be fireflies along Roxas Boulevard (or Dewey Boulevard, as it was known then). Great new projects of urban space recovery, like Manila’s new seaside promenade, will lose its value if the larger problem of bad air is not solved. If we don’t do anything soon, there is no use for any other improvement in the city because we all will be too disabled by toxic air to even enjoy the city sights.

It’s not too late. Join the fireflies and help us all survive to enjoy the sunset and the seaside. If you want to see what free public space can do, check out the new promenade. There is more to life than just malling.

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Feedback is welcome. Please e-mail the writer at citysensephilstar@hotmail.com.