It’s wishful thinking, improbable and impractical,” intoned a businessman…”A silly idea,” proclaimed a member of academe.
These were two of several other views expressed in a Vox Populi survey conducted and published by the MetroPost in August last year regarding a proposal to pedestrianize Perdices St.
Up to now, despite a spirited public hearing conducted by the City Council in September last year, nothing, absolutely nothing has been achieved to reach the goal of this advocacy to transform the University Town into a walkable community–a worldwide movement to promote peoples’ wellness, mitigate climate change, and to create crime-free and peaceful communities.
Well, look at the picture and weep. It shows Manila Mayor Alfredo Lim accompanied by businessmen walking down Ongpin St. in their “1st Pedestrian Day at Manila Chinatown.”
Ongpin is the most congested street in Manila, where business activities of all sorts are carried out. If this could be done in Ongpin, why not in Perdices St. on special days, like when we celebrate our City’s Sandurot Festival, or on Sundays of each month? Car-free Sundays would be worth considering. Or why not make Katada St. at the public market a real social gathering place, motor-free on Sundays?
“Countries around the world are beginning to realize the benefits of pedestrianization and some examples include Shanghai’s Nanjing Road, and Beijing’s Wangfuging Road, where entire streets are appropriated for pedestrians; Bolivia’s “National Day of Pedestrians” where two million cars are taken off the streets on Sunday in nine cities; Jakarta’s main avenues from Thamrin and Sudirman (from the National Monument) to Senayan are closed to motor vehicles every last Sunday of the month; Mexico’s Cordova where miles of major boulevards are closed to motor vehicles and taken over by walkers, cyclists, roller skaters/skateboarders, and children at play; and Brazil’s Curitiba was transformed into a promenade for pedestrians.” (Philippine Star, Jan. 20, 2012).
If the City Council approved the proposal for a Perdices Promenade, or even prescribed that the teeny-weenie pathway called Katada St. in the middle of the public market where the painitan is were to be motor vehicles-free during the Sandurot Festival last November, we would have been the first to celebrate pedestrianization in this part of our country.
We missed a historical “first” and all because of a City Council that failed to appreciate the significance of the movement.
Now, this friendly and urgent reminder to the local government officials in our midst. You have been in office for the past 25 months, and have approximately 16 months to the next national elections on May 13, 2013. A political quote attributed to Thomas Jefferson says: “A politician looks forward to the next election, a statesman looks forward to the next generation.”
Amidst the pervading culture of impunity, climate change, hunger and poverty, and as the National Statistical Coordination Board puts it, “Sad to note, too, is that Negros Oriental is among the 10 provinces with the biggest incidence of poverty…” it behooves our current local government officials to assume the true character of statesmanship to give the people what they deserve.
A sense of urgency for action is the call of the time.
