Resurrection
Resurrection
Posted 00:15am (Mla time) Mar 09, 2005
By Conrado de Quiros
Inquirer News Service
Editor's Note: Published on page A14 of the March 9, 2005 issue of the Philippine Daily Inquirer
ON WEEKENDS particularly, the place now looks not unlike Venice Beach in Sta. Monica, California, or closer to home, Boracay. Shops selling souvenirs abound, musicians and mime artists perform in various corners to the delight of onlookers. That is the strip on Roxas Boulevard, from near the US Embassy to well past Aristocrat going in the direction of the CCP. I've been there several times the past year or so, and been astonished by the sea-change that has taken place.
Unfortunately, not literally. The sea hasn't changed, it's as grimy as ever, from the fuel leaking out from the ships docked in the harbor. Though at night, it doesn't look so bad, particularly when the moon is out and a strong breeze whips through the "Bay Area," the lights blinking on the horizon gleaming on the surface of the undulating water. Last Christmas particularly, when the weather dipped crazily and city residents got to dust off their Baguio attire, it was good to be there. You didn't need to drive off to the mountains or sail to the sea to get a respite. You just had to brave the traffic.
On a good night (at least for business), cars line up the side of the street near the bay as far as the eye can see. Not infrequently, you'll find two rows of cars parked side by side. The street near the Aristocrat restaurant going to Adriatico Circle looks like Woodstock as well. I don't know which caused the spillover crowd, the Bay Area or Adriatico, the latter being the older kid on the block. But whichever the case, the place, to use a phrase favored by the kids, now rocks.
Manila Mayor Lito Atienza I've associated over the last few years with the plan to demolish Mehan Gardens in Arroceros and replace it with a high school. Or so his blueprint indicated -- many environmentalists, who protested the idea violently, suspected the real replacement would be a commercial complex, the high school being just a small part of it. I don't know what has happened to his plan-I still see greenery in the area. I would most certainly urge Atienza to stop and rethink it. But that said, I've got to say he has done some pretty neat things for Nick Joaquin's favorite city.
What he has wrought in the Bay Area is quite impressive. The place looked like a mugger's paradise in the past, even with the street lamps throwing a bright orange light on the walkways at night. You never knew if the joggers there were out to improve their health or their fortunes. While at this, I love the T-shirt my son bought a couple of years ago, that says, "Quiapo Jogging Society," showing a physically fit snatcher being chased by a pot-bellied cop. But that's another story.
As I was saying, you've got to like the transformation of the place to what it is now. The place must be doing brisk business. You get to hear all sorts of things, about how much cut Atienza and Co. are raking from this, but this is one of those cases where I personally don't mind that they do. In these times of radically diminished expectations, you get to be positively grateful for corruption that at least leaves something tangible in its wake. Elsewhere in this country, all it leaves is a bad taste in the mouth.
But it's not just the transformation of the Bay Area you've got to be impressed with. It's the transformation of the city itself. The physical side of it isn't bad as it is. I like what the city government has done to Rizal Avenue, near the intersection of Claro M. Recto Avenue. That place holds a great deal of nostalgia for me. I frequented it when I was in college in the late 1960s and early 1970s. That was where the bookstores -- National, Alemar's, Goodwill, etc. -- and movie houses were. That became a dark and forlorn place after the LRT was built, most of the grand places there turning seedy and dilapidated from lack of patronage and from neglect. The area in front of National Bookstore has now been reclaimed from smog and traffic, paved with red brick, and turned over to pedestrians. The result is by no means pedestrian, though I've seen the place only in daytime when I've sought out the bargains in National.
More than physical, you feel a sense of something moribund being revived. Manila seemed near to dying for a long time. During Alfredo Lim's time as mayor, you associated it with dead bodies floating in the Pasig River, carrying tags that proclaimed their former occupants to be drug pushers and warning others not to copy their example.
Quiapo was no-man's land, particularly the Muslim part of it, which saw much bloodletting between cops and criminals, and it wasn't always clear who was who. Today, you'll find Pajeros parked there, and respectably attired men and women busily going through the shops. Well, that isn't Atienza's doing entirely. It's the doing of Bong Revilla's and Edu Manzano's favorite scourge, the pirated DVD. But truly this country reeks of epic irony, or magic realism. That a community known for conservative beliefs should be uplifted by a product Allah might not always approve of, it's something only whimsical Fate could have thought of.
Now, if only Atienza would listen to the environment groups and keep Mehan Gardens intact, he might yet go down, or up, as one of the best mayors Manila had. Along with Arsenio Lacson, who gave it pride, and Antonio "Yeba" Villegas, who gave it soul. Prosperity isn't just material gain. Berlin is one of the greatest cities in the world, and the most impressive thing about it is not the grand monuments and huge buildings and various testaments to commerce that dot it. It is the greenery that does. One-fourth of the entire place is parks and wildlife, veritable pockets of forest in a bustling city.
Something for him to think about in this season of Lent, in this season of resurrections.
Posted 00:15am (Mla time) Mar 09, 2005
By Conrado de Quiros
Inquirer News Service
Editor's Note: Published on page A14 of the March 9, 2005 issue of the Philippine Daily Inquirer
ON WEEKENDS particularly, the place now looks not unlike Venice Beach in Sta. Monica, California, or closer to home, Boracay. Shops selling souvenirs abound, musicians and mime artists perform in various corners to the delight of onlookers. That is the strip on Roxas Boulevard, from near the US Embassy to well past Aristocrat going in the direction of the CCP. I've been there several times the past year or so, and been astonished by the sea-change that has taken place.
Unfortunately, not literally. The sea hasn't changed, it's as grimy as ever, from the fuel leaking out from the ships docked in the harbor. Though at night, it doesn't look so bad, particularly when the moon is out and a strong breeze whips through the "Bay Area," the lights blinking on the horizon gleaming on the surface of the undulating water. Last Christmas particularly, when the weather dipped crazily and city residents got to dust off their Baguio attire, it was good to be there. You didn't need to drive off to the mountains or sail to the sea to get a respite. You just had to brave the traffic.
On a good night (at least for business), cars line up the side of the street near the bay as far as the eye can see. Not infrequently, you'll find two rows of cars parked side by side. The street near the Aristocrat restaurant going to Adriatico Circle looks like Woodstock as well. I don't know which caused the spillover crowd, the Bay Area or Adriatico, the latter being the older kid on the block. But whichever the case, the place, to use a phrase favored by the kids, now rocks.
Manila Mayor Lito Atienza I've associated over the last few years with the plan to demolish Mehan Gardens in Arroceros and replace it with a high school. Or so his blueprint indicated -- many environmentalists, who protested the idea violently, suspected the real replacement would be a commercial complex, the high school being just a small part of it. I don't know what has happened to his plan-I still see greenery in the area. I would most certainly urge Atienza to stop and rethink it. But that said, I've got to say he has done some pretty neat things for Nick Joaquin's favorite city.
What he has wrought in the Bay Area is quite impressive. The place looked like a mugger's paradise in the past, even with the street lamps throwing a bright orange light on the walkways at night. You never knew if the joggers there were out to improve their health or their fortunes. While at this, I love the T-shirt my son bought a couple of years ago, that says, "Quiapo Jogging Society," showing a physically fit snatcher being chased by a pot-bellied cop. But that's another story.
As I was saying, you've got to like the transformation of the place to what it is now. The place must be doing brisk business. You get to hear all sorts of things, about how much cut Atienza and Co. are raking from this, but this is one of those cases where I personally don't mind that they do. In these times of radically diminished expectations, you get to be positively grateful for corruption that at least leaves something tangible in its wake. Elsewhere in this country, all it leaves is a bad taste in the mouth.
But it's not just the transformation of the Bay Area you've got to be impressed with. It's the transformation of the city itself. The physical side of it isn't bad as it is. I like what the city government has done to Rizal Avenue, near the intersection of Claro M. Recto Avenue. That place holds a great deal of nostalgia for me. I frequented it when I was in college in the late 1960s and early 1970s. That was where the bookstores -- National, Alemar's, Goodwill, etc. -- and movie houses were. That became a dark and forlorn place after the LRT was built, most of the grand places there turning seedy and dilapidated from lack of patronage and from neglect. The area in front of National Bookstore has now been reclaimed from smog and traffic, paved with red brick, and turned over to pedestrians. The result is by no means pedestrian, though I've seen the place only in daytime when I've sought out the bargains in National.
More than physical, you feel a sense of something moribund being revived. Manila seemed near to dying for a long time. During Alfredo Lim's time as mayor, you associated it with dead bodies floating in the Pasig River, carrying tags that proclaimed their former occupants to be drug pushers and warning others not to copy their example.
Quiapo was no-man's land, particularly the Muslim part of it, which saw much bloodletting between cops and criminals, and it wasn't always clear who was who. Today, you'll find Pajeros parked there, and respectably attired men and women busily going through the shops. Well, that isn't Atienza's doing entirely. It's the doing of Bong Revilla's and Edu Manzano's favorite scourge, the pirated DVD. But truly this country reeks of epic irony, or magic realism. That a community known for conservative beliefs should be uplifted by a product Allah might not always approve of, it's something only whimsical Fate could have thought of.
Now, if only Atienza would listen to the environment groups and keep Mehan Gardens intact, he might yet go down, or up, as one of the best mayors Manila had. Along with Arsenio Lacson, who gave it pride, and Antonio "Yeba" Villegas, who gave it soul. Prosperity isn't just material gain. Berlin is one of the greatest cities in the world, and the most impressive thing about it is not the grand monuments and huge buildings and various testaments to commerce that dot it. It is the greenery that does. One-fourth of the entire place is parks and wildlife, veritable pockets of forest in a bustling city.
Something for him to think about in this season of Lent, in this season of resurrections.
posted by Dante at 11:06 PM
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