Metropolis Part 2 - World urbanization

Last week we compared two images, even if these were only imaginary ones Cebu’s horizon in the 1970’s and today, 2020’s. Fifty years ago, the highest single building was Ludo & Luym, all 15 floors of it with a revolving restaurant at the top, for the oldies to reminisce. Today there are hundreds of buildings with heights of 40 to a hundred floors creating that peculiar skyline that marks all the world’s metropolises. And while Metro Cebu remains legally a non-entity yet, we can’t deny its definite metropolitan nature. In both its physical structure and way of living.

This is inevitable as the world’s population decisively moves towards cities. Around the turn of the century, already half of the world’s people live in cities to around 55% today. This will escalate to reach around 70% by 2050. And there’s no way it can be reversed even if some people want it to. New cities will emerge and grow, many will merge to become metropolises, and some will even grow to join the growing list of “megacities.” The term has no fixed definition yet, but common rendering requires a population of about 10 million to join the club. Metro Cebu is not yet one by world’s standard even if some people insist.

While global urbanization is inescapable (80% of the world’s GDP is created in cities), so are the blues and blight associated with it. Already, the world’s cities are scrambling for a better solution to all the urban woes not experienced by our grandfathers in their time --traffic congestion, air pollution, lack of water, housing shortage, and scores of other daily difficulties. One might wonder if it’s worth it --all this development, at the expense of comfort and peace and a more relaxed lifestyle. But it’s a one-way street, individuals might decide the opposite way, but the world as a whole will globally urbanize.

What do cities have to do then? Since growth is inevitable, specific measures have to be done to make such growth sustainable. Unfortunately, this is a lot easier said than done, and experience tells us failures outscore successes worldwide, and especially in our country and others like it. As we wrote last week, Cebu’s skyline rose rapidly but our public transportation has remained the same in the last 50 years. Oh, there are improvements all right, but these hardly count as better or more efficient. Even the term “modernization” touted by the government did not offer the capacity nor the efficiency required to serve just a bulging skyline. On the contrary, it has become worse, both in the capital and in our home city with commuters scrambling for rides for hours in situations that still resemble those decades ago. And we’re only talking about one aspect --transportation and mobility. There are others, more serious, in terms of livability and environmental sustainability.

It's not hopeless, though, and not necessarily difficult. But it needs what we call a paradigm shift, towards that which centers on people, and their needs. And most especially the needs of the many, the majority, and not of the “entitled” few. Then maybe there’s hope.