Too many malls, not enough parks

I hope one of the emergency powers that will be given to Transport Secretary Art Tugade is the power to regulate the construction of more malls in Metro Manila. The law should declare a moratorium in the construction of any more malls in traffic plagued Metro Manila.

The current voluntary agreement not to allow weekend “madness” sales is not enough. We need to reduce congestion caused by malls in the regular course of a regular weekday.

There is urgency to take this drastic move in the light of Mayor Erap’s plan to allow a private developer to tear down the Rizal Memorial sports complex and build a mall. We don’t need another mall there because just across the street is Harrison Plaza, a rather large mall. Erap’s plan also means we lose more open space in the crowded city.

Another good reason to preserve Rizal Memorial is the fact that it is a heritage building. It must be covered by a law that preserves such structures. It seems the Historical Commission is sleeping on the job again, the way its officials did on Torre de Manila.

I realize Mayor Erap wants to raise money to help run the city. But there are other important considerations. For one, it will increase congestion in that part of Manila.

Urban living for Metro Manilans is stressful precisely because local politicians have no inkling of what makes a livable city and that includes green spaces to provide people breathing space. They have discarded previous urban planning designed by no less than Daniel Burnham.

Cities are comprised of more than just buildings and people, an article on urban planning I googled declares. Even tiny Singapore has a pretty extensive nature preserve within view of the skyscrapers. I enjoyed my walks there.

“Green space must be a key consideration in urban planning if the health of a city and its people are both considered important… There are numerous health benefits associated with access to public open space and parks.

“Access to vegetated areas such as parks, open spaces, and playgrounds has been associated with better perceived general health, reduced stress levels, reduced depression and more… parks and open spaces make compact living attractive and viable.”

Here, the only public park that qualifies as an urban nature preserve is the La Mesa Dam Ecopark developed by DENR Secretary Gina Lopez some years ago. My friend Ray Dan, an avid bird photographer, has actually had successful attractive bird finds at La Mesa.

People are hungry for open air public spaces. In the Ortigas development in Kapitolyo, a rather small park in front of the Estancia Mall is frequented by families after office hours and on weekends. The air conditioned mall across the street is nice but people welcome the green open space, even if it is just a pocket park.

The Rizal Memorial not only provides a rare open space in the city but it is historic as well. Our athletes have trained there and many international events from sports to concerts have been held there. The building also depicts period architecture that gives Manila’s otherwise mostly barren urban landscape some character.

Maybe now is the time for La Salle alumni led by Danding Cojuangco and Ricky Razon to raise enough money to buy the property from the City of Manila and donate it to De La Salle, providing La Salle some breathing space. Maybe they can round up their good deed with an endowment fund to train national athletes and make La Salle a Center of Excellence for sports. That’s how to use wealth for public good.

What Erap plans to do to the Rizal Memorial is at the root of our urban problems that manifest in traffic jams among others. Our city officials have been guilty of haphazard development of Metro Manila.

For too long now, zoning regulations have been ignored. Even reputable developers are allowed to take back open spaces that are part of their approved development plans so they can build malls, hotels and other commercial buildings. Property developers have been given a blank check to do what they want with no regard to an area’s carrying capacity.

Our hopeless traffic gridlocks can also be traced to this blank check to develop malls so close to each other. The Katipunan traffic, already pretty bad because of Ateneo and Miriam, was made worse by a new mall and the long line of cars trying to enter its parking area. I am sure that when another new mall opens in Meralco Avenue, the same thing will happen.

Malls should be required to manage traffic beyond assigning a few clueless guards who pretend they are directing traffic. Developers should not be allowed to build so close to the street so that cars end up in long queues as these vehicles inch up to the parking area. Traffic flow management should be part of a proposed development’s Environmental Impact Study.

Megamall had the good idea of putting up a bus terminal to reduce the line of buses clogging EDSA. But the terminal is not big enough.

The private cars trying to enter the parking lots at Megamall’s building B also tend to clog the street and delay motorists just passing through. The situation at Aura is a lot better because there is sufficient space for cars entering the parking area.

I am not minimizing the value of the malls in our lives. Because we do not have enough suitable public parks, the malls serve as some kind of a town plaza for many of us.

We bring our families there to eat and to shop on weekends. In the case of Megamall, I even secured the renewal of my passport and driver’s license there. I do my regular walking exercise in the air conditioned comfort of a mall.

But do we need to have so many of them?

The time has long come for metro officials to have a better sense of urban planning. We are choking ourselves to death with mindless development.

Private developers should also have a greater sense of the public good by using good urban planning principles when they build malls and other commercial structures. Otherwise reputable private property developers are as much to blame as our clueless politicians for the pain of congestion problems we face daily.

Of course if there is more in it for city officials to want to convert Rizal Memorial to a mall than they are telling us, none of us should be surprised. Ganun talaga, eh!

Reaction to Tugade

I got this reaction to last Friday’s column on Transport Secretary Art Tugade from Enrique S. Bontia of BF Homes Parañaque City:

It is interesting to note some of the accomplishments of Mr Tugade in addressing the traffic problems in Manila as cited in your column of Dec. 2. However, there are still many “low hanging fruits” that he seems to overlook.

One such simple solution in the clogged east and west service roads of SLEX is to make them ONE-WAY; one towards Alabang and the other towards Nichols. Motorists coming from one side can make a u-turn on the nearest interchange to reach their destination on the other side. This will ease the traffic gridlock in this area since a 2-lane road can no longer handle vehicle traffic (especially trailers and 10-wheeler trucks) that has multiplied over the decades.

The public transport will eventually adapt and accept the system because there is a demand from the commuting public. This solution is relatively cost-effective it will only entail providing a dedicated u-turn slots in the interchanges of Bicutan, Sucat and Alabang. By the way, this set-up is standard in the highways of Texas.

Another low-lying fruit is to require the toll management providers to change to high speed RFID scanners so vehicles need not pause or stop to wait for their RFIDs to be read. Their system is so outmoded making us envious in the interstate system in Texas that can scan at a speed of 40MPH.

I hope you can forward these suggestions to Mr. Tugade through your highly commendable and credible column.

Boo Chanco’s e-mail address is [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter @boochanco