Beyond the night market
Several years ago, most trade and commerce conducted in many cities in USA were in areas fondly called down town. Those were scenes of economic enterprises and entertainment activities as they were also fancy homes of the conservative elite. The lyrics of a Petula Clark original would tell us all: “when you’re alone and life is making you lonely, you can always go down town”. Then, the rich began moving towards the carefully sculptured suburban to resettlement and business expansion relocated to the so-called Uptown. Slowly and steadily emerge a serious problem in their social structure. The term “inner city” evolved. They applied this term, quite colloquially, to their former centers of business. Yes, as the down town was overtaken by time, its decay and stagnation followed.
In our city, we have an area which is denominated as the Central Business District. Mainly, its physical parameters are Magallanes St, Leon Z. Kilat, Jones Avenue and D Jakosalem St. The heavy transactional deals of Taipans are conducted inside the seemingly archaic yet ornately designed structures along Plaridel Street. In this area, the White Gold, Sen Hiap Hing, Southern Light among others served as the precursors of our modern malls in terms of merchandise carried in their shelves and stock rooms. They have since left their iconic business establishment such that only their memories survive. On the other hand, the MOVIE, short for Majestic, Oriente, Vision, Ideal and Eden, showed all the famous films then. I have not gone to watch Movies for decades and so understandably i do not know if MOVIE’s are still there to entertain.
Arguably, we are heading to a time in our economic history when our down town becomes a replica of the American inner city. If it is not happening now, with the rise of such business hubs as the Ayala Cebu Business Park, the two SM mega structures, the Robinson’s complexes far from the central business district of old, it will eventually come to pass unless our leaders put their minds together to arrest the emergence of our own version of inner city.
Recently, we witnessed the imbrioglio about the holding the night market on a major part of Colon Street. The concept, while hounded with alarming rumors of corruption, was supposed to keep business transactions in the area alive. People are supposed to be magnetized by the variety of merchandise sold in the area at bargain prices by merchants who do not possess any stake at all in the area other than flooding it with their goods never mind if they compete with those who plunged their huge financial capital to do business there.
Quite honestly, I believe that our leaders have to be more imaginative if they are to keep the dynamism of mercantile trade in the city’s central business district. The night market, while it serves the interests of the ambulant vendors, cannot stop the emergence of a kind of inner city.
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