The Urban Roamer

The “IT hub” in Gilmore Avenue

August 10, 2014October 6, 2012 by The Urban Roamer

The New Manila of the old, as was noted before, was mostly a residential enclave among the upper and middle class families. Whatever commercial activity there was in the area in those days were minimal and did not do much to alter the landscape of the neighborhood.

But in recent years, commercial activity in the area began to spike. Partly contributing to the commercial development is the influx of a new industry: the computer retailers that set businesses left and right mostly concentrated along that patch of road called Gilmore Avenue.*

*Interestingly, Gilmore Avenue was named after a person who had nothing to do with technology matters. It was named after an official during the American colonial period named Eugene Allen Gilmore, who served twice as acting governor general during the late 1920’s.

The residences of New Manila

May 26, 2014September 28, 2012 by The Urban Roamer

During the American colonial period in the Philippines, particularly during the 1920’s-1930’s, the country’s capital city Manila was experiencing unprecedented progress and commercial expansion. Along with it came the creeping problems brought about by such progress, though back then, they were as grave as they are today.

For Manila’s upper and middle class families, these changes brought out much stress that they consider moving to Manila’s outskirts or suburbs instead. This was not left unnoticed by the property developers of the time as they scrambled to develop what was then a vast wilderness found a few kilometers outside the city limits.

Leveriza and the story of Pasay’s “development”

August 10, 2014September 22, 2012 by The Urban Roamer

It was one sunny weekend sometime ago that I found myself in Pasay. I was about to go to the Mall of Asia but I figured out to do a quick little stroll around the inner Pasay area, particularly around the area of Leveriza Street.

Leveriza is said to be named after one of the princesses who lived in the 16th century, around the time the Spaniards came to Manila, who of a kingdom that encompasses roughly much of today’s Pasay.

A disputed boundary: the case of Pasig and Cainta

August 10, 2014September 12, 2012 by The Urban Roamer

Boundary disputes are never fun. They are a source of so much mess and confusion, not only between the contesting parties of the dispute, but also among residents and visitors, myself included. Such is the case of the issue going on between the city of Pasig in Metro Manila and the town of Cainta in the province of Rizal.

The area at stake is actually a very large tract of prime real estate that is thriving with commercial and residential activity, covering the residential villages of Karangalan Village (East) and Cainta Greenpark Village, the V.V. Soliven Commercial Center, and the Sta. Lucia Mall.