Manila's Urban Planning Disaster

'To just right things would probably take a generation using all the government clout and political will available.'

1 minute read

January 30, 2005, 5:00 AM PST

By Chris Steins @planetizen


Manilla does not have enough "infrastructure in the form of bridges, highways, wider streets to handle the amount of traffic that needs to be borne. There is not enough efficient public mass transport to keep time schedules reasonable in the matter of going back and forth on business, pleasure or emergencies. Then there is the appalling housing consisting of a singular lack of affordable homes for the largest number of the population.

...Come the turn of the century and the change in colonial regimes from Spanish to American, new technology was ushered in. City planning or urban planning was an innovation introduced by the Americans.

But somehow or other, when the opportunity to implement the plans came after the massive destruction of Manila and Baguio, and with the availability of the wide open spaces of Quezon City, the government that envisioned the cities, made the plans and allocated the land area but failed to move forward and make them a reality.Today Metro Manila is an urban problem that is virtually unsolvable under present dispensations of law and custom. To just right things or rather, eliminate the wrong things would probably take a generation using all the government clout and political will that is available."

Thanks to Chris Steins

Wednesday, October 26, 2005 in ABS-CBN Interactive

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