Naga at Random - The Follow-ups

It’s almost Christmas, and my thoughts naturally wander back to the place of my childhood. Going back to Naga City last Peñafrancia Fiesta gave me an opportunity to have some sort of follow-up to my two previous posts.

This time, I managed to go inside Avenue Square and confirm that it truly is a small version of Metrowalk. I was visiting my brother and his family, whose residence / music studio was just a block away, and they invited me for some after-dinner coffee in the local branch of The Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf. The Avenue Square was in fiesta mode and customers from the nearby residential areas came in force (possibly they also brought along visitors from Manila). What caught my attention was the dramatic lighting and landscaping. The ambience in the cafe, as well as the other shops I assume, catered to middle class sensibilities. The wooden furniture, comfy seats, wall decors and the large glass of smoothie I was consuming, generic though they may be, could be likened to coffee shops in Manila.

Speaking of Manila standards, I had also gone inside the E-mall--in its Robinson's Grocery to be exact. From the outside the E-mall looks both promising and imposing. The mini-mall itself was just as large as its local counterparts like Master Square and Robertson's, so the grocery itself was quite small and lacking in shelf space to display a wider range of products, but its cleanliness and orderliness was just as good as its counterparts in the NCR. Too bad I didn't have time to roam around.

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I managed finally to get a photo of that Greenbelt impostor in downtown Naga. It's not much though since I just used a cellphone camera as I was riding a tricycle.

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Being in the city itself enabled me to be reoriented to its spatial context, and made me form some Urban Planning concerns a la Urbano de la Cruz.

Regarding the housing developments in the frontier barangay of Pacol (as well as contiguous municipalities north of Naga), the increasing affluence of its residents might cause more automobiles in the city since they would go to work and school downtown, which is at least four kilometers away. But downtown Naga (the original Central Business District or CBD1, more commonly known as Centro) is barely able to handle rush hour vehicle volumes, and for parking, vehicles merely park along the road. There's a CBD2 being developed, but it's just bedside Centro and also far from Pacol.

The easiest solution would be to encourage the development of commercial areas in Pacol itself. I must emphasize though that the environmental impact should be minimized to preserve the pristine environment of this originally agricultural area near Mt. Isarog. What I'm hearing is that this is the present track being taken by the city government, understandably so since it would involve less political and financial strain for City Hall.

The other solutions include policies discouraging ownership of private vehicles together with policies boosting public transport. For instance, the car owner would face higher taxes and fees. Environment-friendly alternatives to the jeep and tricycle could be introduced. These may be too drastic and burdensome, therefore unpopular. In turn, implementation and enforcement would require a great deal of government resources.

As for the parking problems, there are vacant lots in Centro that could be opened to parking. At the same time, stricter parking measures (including towing) should be implemented. Multi-storey parking structures may be built on the larger lots. Underground parking is iffy due to the almost yearly flooding episodes encountered in the low-lying areas of the city.

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Speaking of transportation, I encountered no hassles in my bus trips to and from Naga last September. I rode Isarog Bus Lines on the way there. I must say, the La-Z Boy seats were overrated for me at least. Sure, it had easy push-button adjustment controls and superior shock absorption that cushioned my butt for the whole eight-hour trip, but I was still in a moving vehicle, and whatever discomfort and difficulty in sleeping I had have was primarily due to the motion, not the seat ergonomics. On the way back to Manila, I rode a Philtranco bus that wasn't speed crazy at all. Lastly, there was no "road kill" encountered this time around.

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There's another Naga City nowadays. Residents of Naga town in Cebu chose cityhood in a plebiscite earlier this year. I guess this new city will be known as Naga City, Cebu, while my home city in Bicol, by virtue of its being a chartered city, will simply be called Naga City. For me, who had experienced and is still experiencing awkward dealings with namesakes, all I can say (in my limited Visayan) is "samok."