The Urban Roamer

Tales of a disappearing plaza and a moving monument

June 22, 2019October 30, 2009 by The Urban Roamer

A plaza has been generally defined as an open space, serving the “village center” where people converge to do business or be entertained. And in the olden days of the city, long before malls, television, and the Internet became part of our lives, the plaza was the place to be to “hang out” and relax.

Here in the metropolis though, many plazas here now mean a different thing, thanks in part to the influence of urbanization. Nowadays a number of plazas of the old have somewhat disappeared in the midst of bad traffic, parked vehicles, and urban landscaping gone wrong. (horribly wrong in some cases)

after the storm: a time to help and celebrate

May 9, 2014October 8, 2009 by The Urban Roamer

It’s been almost 2 weeks now since the metropolis was hit hard by a calamity of such magnitude rarely experienced in this part of the country. And while things today here are running almost back to normal, (almost being the operative word here) it is clear that the onslaught of Typhoon Ondoy has left such a deep impact that may have changed the landscape of Metro Manila.

Now people are raising the issue of safety in many parts of the metro in the face of a calamity of such scope as that of Ondoy. It is expected now that prices of properties on or near the areas most affected by Ondoy’s floods will go down (especially in parts of Marikina, Pasig, and Taguig) as some people there are now considering moving out to live in condominiums or elevated properties in the city or in the suburbs.

calamity in the city: Typhoon Ondoy’s fury

May 9, 2014October 1, 2009 by The Urban Roamer

The events during the last weekend of September (from the 26th-27th) was something for the record books, as the country, and Metro Manila in particular, bore witness to what was probably one of the most severe storms that have ravaged the city in recent memory.

While there have been many storms in the past (especially the ones I can recall from way back) that have caused much damage to the city throughout history,the damage done by those typhoons was nothing compared to what Typhoon Ondoy (International name: Ketsana) in just a day or two. People say it was the worst flooding Metro Manila has experienced since the early 1970’s.

Bacood untied

May 9, 2014September 24, 2009 by The Urban Roamer

Situated along the banks of the rivers Pasig and San Juan, quite removed from the busy and traffic-laden streets of Manila’s Santa Mesa district is a community (more like a subdistrict or a sitio of sorts) known as Bacood. Bacood’s name comes from the Tagalog word “bakood” which would mean either an elevated area or a cane plantation. It has been said that the area back then served as a plantation for various crops. But in the early days, Bacood was known as Cordeleria, a Spanish term for a shop that sells ropes. This was because the place back then was the center of rope-making and selling activity in Manila and in surrounding suburbs. One of those people who owned such a business was a Katipunero named Sancho Valenzuela, who would soon lead a failed assault against the Spaniards at the outbreak of the Philippine Revolution in 1896 and became one of the first martyrs of the Revolution. His memory now since invoked in the naming of the street that leads to Bacood.