Inner Cebu City better than Old Sacramento

In American setting, the “inner city”, which term reportedly began usage in the early 1950’s, refers to the central, often older and densely-populated parts of a city, typically characterized by high poverty, unemployment, and substandard housing. For a lack of a better socio-political term more applicable to our city, let me just still use “inner city”. I dare to apply it minimally to what is described as our central business district (CBD) minus the poverty, decay, and volatile peace and order condition normally associated with if not primarily attached to the American “inner city”.

Let me try my best to recall the names of the city’s leading commercial establishments in the 1950’s thru the late 1960’s when I was bridging my elementary, high school, and early college days. To avoid bias, I will enumerate alphabetically and not on the basis of their perceived dominance as I register profound apologies to those whose names I may have inadvertently omitted. As far as I remember, among those popular business organizations, mostly in the Magallanes area, were Echo Electrical Supply, La Estrella del Sur, La Fortuna Bakery, Rosita’s Bazaar, Sen Hiap Hing, Shoe Mart, Southern Light, Tinong’s Bakery, Visayan Restaurant, and White Gold. Along Colon Street were the so-called first run English MOVIE houses M for Majestic, O for Oriente, V for Vision, I for Ideal, and E for Eden, and Lane and Vitina theaters for Tagalog films.

We were proud of the Ludo-Luym Building as the tallest structure in Southern Philippines then. With a revolving restaurant at its top floor, we Cebuano diners could see the radiance of the entire city as the restaurant moved in a slow grind. But, while the Ludo-Luym building still stands today, most of those above enumerated firms have reinvented themselves and/or moved to different locations. Sadly, the smaller enterprises stopped doing business or were replaced by others.

          More than just touching the melancholy of the almost-forgotten past, this article wants to revive interest in most residential homes in the CBD. I’m concerned particularly with those that haven’t been retouched (sorry, I cannot find a better word) all these years. For example, there are such old small structures along the former Manalili Street, now V. Gullas Street whose appearance doesn’t anymore reflect its storied past. There too, are similarly-conditioned houses along D. Jakosalem Street between Colon and Bonifacio.

The parcels of land where these buildings stand aren’t large in area but are now quite expensive. Ironically, this situation is a probable cause why their owners have been stymied to introduce improvements. The non-repair of these structures made our city less exciting to live in and less attractive for large capital to do business in.

This is a challenge for our local leaders to be innovative and inventive. The inner city must be revitalized for both historical and economic reasons. There’s an American model that may be replicated and more importantly improved here. I refer to Old Sacramento, in California. While the Cebu City CBD was the dynamic business hub of Southern Philippines, in the ‘60’s, the restoration and redevelopment of Old Sacramento began. I learned that transformation of a dilapidated area into a 28-acre historical tourist destination was a product of a $28-million public-private partnership.

It’s a rare opportunity that we have an engineer for a mayor and a visionary mind for a vice mayor. They may just decide to copy the Sacramento model. To start, they should create a commission tasked with sole objective of revitalizing the inner city. There are brilliant men in urban planning, tax experts, and legal minds living in our city who can be tapped to compose the Commission. Who knows we can do better than the Old Sacramento Commission.