park life

Manila, PH -- there’s a fantasy of mine where i’m at work and during lunch break I go out of the office. outside, I don’t see a sidewalk painted in a dizzying mix of red, blue and yellow. the pavement isn’t tiled like jigsaw puzzles. pedestrians don’t need to bump each other while walking through the narrow street filled with vendors and beggars competing for their attention. puddles don’t make portions of the sidewalk impassable. instead, there’s an expanse of trees before me, and a park in the middle of it. i pick a bench to sit on and watch kids running by while eating my sandwich. the grass in the field is so inviting that people take off their footwear and just wander about barefoot.

i’m sharing this because I chanced upon this local TV show last night and they were talking about urban planning. the guest was my friend’s dad, a well-known architect and urban planning advocate. he talked about new york, paris, london, and other places where people value open spaces. parks aren’t considered a cost penalty but an asset to the community as these serve as the lungs of the city. they also talked about public transport, which is really not one of our country’s strengths. the average person spends 300 hours in traffic annually. i, on the other hand, spend at least 180 more than that here in manila. in places like singapore, mass transit systems are thoughtfully built next to high-density residential buildings so more people can get to work in just a few minutes. wasted time and carbon footprints (plus incidents of road rage) are reduced.

getting to work in 15 minutes. leisurely lunches at the park.

one can still dream.

photo from here