EARLIER this year, a video showing a clean, lush, and beautified Metro Manila went viral on social media.
The video, made by production agency Go Motion, shows artists with their pencil and sketchbooks “redesigning” the structures and cities that make up the megapolis. Shots of Binondo devoid of electrical posts, greenified bridges and train lines, and Cubao’s renovated old buildings sparked my imagination—and hope—for a more beautiful and truly livable Metro Manila in the future.
However, some netizens showed their skepticism in the video’s comments section and “impossible” was sadly the most common word used. Is redesigning a chaotic urban jungle like Manila really an impossible task? I believe the answer is no. However, I also believe that to achieve this, we must first have to learn from cities that have successfully transformed their spaces into beautiful, sustainable, and highly livable places of commerce and culture.
Starting the transformation by rethinking transportation
Redesigning Manila may not be an impossible task, but it’s certainly not going to be a walk in the park. Legislation, financial resources and the collective embracing of change are needed to make the redesign work. Just take a look at Amsterdam, which was more of a car-friendly city decades ago than a vibrant, people-friendly city it is known today.
There is a photo series by urban-planning graduate Cornelia Dinca and Dutch photographer Thomas Schlijper that showed the difference between the Amsterdam of old and the Amsterdam of today, and how careful city planning was vital in the transformation.
Interestingly, the streets of old Amsterdam shown in the photos look reminiscent of the Manila of today—filled with cars and concrete and most everything else that we see in our streets today. But what started with the reduction of parking spaces for cars a couple of decades ago created a transformative ripple to the Amsterdam we see in the “after” photos—a city that’s vibrant and full of life.
Dinca admitted that many cities will have different sets of problems to face with their respective transformations, but explains what the transformations are really all about. “Every city has its own unique conditions and challenges. It’s not about making all cities like Amsterdam. It’s about making the cities better versions of themselves.”
The case of freeing ourselves from freeways
The transformation of Amsterdam isn’t the only example Metro Manila and its inhabitants can learn from. Countries around the world have been strategically removing and redesigning major infrastructures to make their cities healthier, greener and safer.
In 2003 the South Korean capital of Seoul saw an elevated highway removed from its inner city, turning the site into an expansive green space. Not only has the space become well-loved by Seoul’s residents, it has shown its value in a lot of other ways. The temperature of the inner city has dropped, and birds, fish and other wildlife have returned to the city. Also, the removal of the freeways made people choose public transit over driving into the city, causing a decrease in greenhouse-gas emission and traffic jams.
We see this positive effect in Madrid as well, when they removed their M-30 freeway to revitalize the Manzanares River. The space officially opened to the public in 2011 and the redeveloped 300-acre land now includes running and biking trails, skate parks, recreation centers, and even an urban beach. The impact of the Rio Madrid project has been astounding for the city, with studies proving that residents who live close to the park and access it frequently are becoming healthier.
These changes may seem counterintuitive, especially in a car-obsessed city like Metro Manila, but the changes these cities made prove the concept called “induced demand,” a theory that shows if you make streets bigger, more people will use them. And if you make them smaller, drivers discover and use other routes, and traffic turns out to be about the same.
Being open to change
To redesign and transform Metro Manila, we must definitely make sacrifices and be open to change, just like how the residents of Amsterdam, Seoul and Madrid sacrificed driving their cars to make way for sustainable spaces. I’m sure the removal of the freeways in Seoul and Madrid caused headaches to the cities’ motorists, but now we can see they’re reaping the benefits from the careful city planning that focused on improving the lives of people in the long run.
These transformed cities show that contrary to what we’ve been conditioned to think, cities don’t have to be polluted and dangerous. For the transformation to begin, we have to start imagining and embracing the idea that all of Metro Manila can and should be a place of joy, discovery and beauty for people of all ages.
Image credits: Sustainable Amsterdam, Gizmodo.com, Myspace founder Tom Anderson