How not to do it
“Planning is balance. We have all these problems because of imbalance,†Palafox said.
Most of the central business districts were situated along the EDSA corridor, he pointed out. Quezon City, Cubao District, Ortigas Center, Fort Bonifacio Global City, Makati Central Business District, and Rockwell Center were all here.
Makati alone was challenged by having to transport a daytime population that was 11 times the nighttime population.
He also bemoaned the low-density gated communities, which were frowned upon in other urban centers around the globe.
“I think Metro Manila is the only place in the world where you have mansions in the middle of the city,†Palafox said.
He quoted the American Planning Association as declaring in 1998 that “if you have a big house in the middle of the city, you have a higher carbon footprint because you are allocating to yourself prime urban resources, you are preventing more families to live closer to their places of work, you're encouraging more urban sprawl to encroach into the forest and the farms.â€
When in Manhattan, the likes of the Clintons, Kennedys, and Bloombergs would live in apartments, Palafox said.
In other parts of the world, he added, big houses were undergoing “renewal†into multi-family dwellings. He proposed to Makati villages to do the same and allow houses to be constructed six storeys-high.
However, he said, “In our part of the world, when I talk like this, instead of shaming them, they shame me. But elsewhere in the world, I get paid for those best practices.â€
Another example of “how not to do it†was the location of the MRT stations along EDSA. Elsewhere in the world, a train station was in a high-density area, so more people were within walking distance. Here, the stations were surrounded by gated communities with residents that did not use the train.
“Our plans in our country are only short term and opportunistic; not long-term and visionary,†Palafox said.
He accused some developers of thinking only about “profit, profit, profit, never mind trafficâ€.
Linkback:
https://tubagbohol.mikeligalig.com/index.php?topic=82816.0