Residents, students laud Teresa pedestrianization

Residents of Teresa Street and students of Polytechnic University of the Philippines (PUP) lauded Manila Mayor Lito Atienza’s Teresa Pedestrianization Project which was inaugurated and opened to the public yesterday.

"The pedestrianization of Teresa street in Sta. Mesa, Manila, is a continuation of the city government’s vision of planning areas around key schools as university towns," Atienza said.

Teresa street is a strategic avenue used by thousands of people daily in going to and from the PUP, one of the National Government’s most important tertiary institutions.

For decades, besides being a passageway for pedestrians and motorists, the 217-meter long stretch of Teresa street (from Old Sta. Mesa to the PUP gate) has also hosted small enterprises mostly catering to the students and teachers of PUP, as well as workers in nearby office buildings.

City Hall decided this year to close the street to motorists and develop it as a pedestrian area, in order to ensure the safety of students and residents using it. The plan for developing it as a pedestrian area was approved by the City Council, which passed an ordinance principally authored by 6th District Councilor Joey Uy, Majority Floor Leader Ernesto Dionisio and other 6th District Councilors Greco Belgica, Bonjay Isip-Garcia, Cassy Sison and Beth Rivera on the basis of endorsements from the PUP community and the barangays.

At yesterday’s inauguration, PUP President Samuel Salvador and barangay chairmen Bonifacio Aragona, Jr. and Andrea Paraiso lauded the pedestrianization and expressed hope it could be a model for similar areas.

Earlier, Aragona and Paraiso welcomed the project that sought to ensure safe passage for students, residents and other passersby; eliminate or reduce cases of vehicular accidents; provide income opportunities to barangay residents; and enhance the surroundings.

Salvador, in a separate letter, also endorsed the project, saying the "laudable project will be of great help not only to the surrounding barangays, but most especially to the40,000 students, faculty members and employees of PUP."

Under Atienza’s Buhayin ang Maynila urban renewal program, strategic sites in the city have been redeveloped as pedestrian areas, similar to those being done in model cities in Europe, the US, Australia and some Asian countries.

A long stretch of Rizal Avenue (from Carriedo to Recto) in Manila is now a much-acclaimed pedestrian area.

The mayor said he hopes Teresa Street could be a model for fashioning communities around key schools of learning as pedestrian areas, "so people can consider them as university towns."

Manila hosts the biggest number of tertiary institutions, including the country’s oldest schools, which are mostly in its famous University Belt downtown.