The issue on the Perdices Promenade, or the move of the City Council to close Perdices St. during weekends and holidays, appears to have become an either-or question between the economy and the environment.
Obviously, if Perdices St. will be closed during weekends and holidays, our business establishments along it will suffer, as proven by the dismal sales figures sometime ago when the street was dug up to be replaced with concrete.
On the other hand, the environmentalists want to point Dumaguete to another direction. They are saying that Dumaguete should be a walkable community. That the City should encourage walking to promote exercise, and prevent lifestyle diseases, counter the effects of climate change by minimizing our carbon emissions, and take the lead, being a University Town that is a bastion of new ideas.
True, we do not have examples yet in the Philippines whereby a law like this has been enforced. But we have examples of this move being done in other countries. In New York, Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg generated controversy by “pedestrianizing” a few areas like Times Square.
Many European cities — where expensive automobiles are made — have already closed vast areas to car traffic. Store owners in Zurich had worried that the road closures would mean a drop in business. Such fear, however, has proven unfounded, according to a study, because pedestrian traffic increased 30 to 40 percent where cars were banned.
But does the Perdices Promenade issue really have to be a win-or-lose situation? Mayor Sagarbarria is ready and willing to make Rizal Blvd. a promenade, and is proposing to repair the sidewalks along Perdices St. to make them walkable.
The environmentalists still want Perdices St. to be the promenade, saying that the Rizal Blvd. already is a promenade, at least partly.
There could probably be a way to harmonize both advocacies, and make both the businessmen and environmentalists happy. This is the challenge that should be tackled by our City planners.
Is this doable? Perhaps. But it would require a lot of ‘thinking out of the box’.