Often hear that nothing changes

[Jollygoodfellow]

Maybe this video should be in a different forum but for those who says nothing gets done/ 

 

 

[OnMyWay]

We can thank DILG chief Eduardo Año and Mayor Isko for this.  Let's hope it keeps going as it is definitely some progress for the Philippines!

Related articles:

https://news.mb.com.ph/2019/10/23/mayor-isko-to-suspend-99-village-officials-for-failing-to-enforce-road-clearing-ops/

https://newsinfo.inquirer.net/1181511/iskos-birthday-wish-of-citywide-cleanup-comes-true

 

[Marvin Boggs]

Its one, small step for man.....

One giant leap for mankind!   I wonder if they can transition to asphalt roadways at some point instead of concrete :)

[scott h]

3 hours ago, Jollygoodfellow said:

nothing gets done

 

2 hours ago, OnMyWay said:

progress

This might be a long one so sorry in advance.

UNINTENDED consequences?

Back ground. I live in Metro Manila in an older area of the sity. I am a 2 minutes walk from our pelenke and wet market, 3 minutes from a cathedral and 2 minutes from our "village" square. I live just off Quirino Blvd which is an alternate route for folk commuting daily south to north.

Along Quirino blvd they are not strictly enforcing a 24 hour no parking (and it works as long as the enforcers are around ) Result? No cars, but now the traffic now goes almost twice as fast, even in school zones, and when jeepney or trikes stop cars and scooters swerve both inside and outside to pass. Now the folks who used to park along the road park their cars at the local SM Mall about 3 clicks away which has free parking...(for now anyway until SM figures out why their lot is full 24/7  and they decide to make some extra money lol)

Like most older towns we have a secondary road. Ours runs from the wet market to our Barangay town square and chapel. All the illegal vendors were cleared out and now it is almost a pleasure to browse the stall with out dodging random buckets of fish or onions and dodging guys pushing karts of tabo tabo's. Unintended results? In the evenings folks would set up tables and sell food or snacks to kids getting out of school or cool drinks to people leaving the chapel. It was almost a village square where locals would gather in the evenings share a meal or a drink and chat about their day. Now the street is empty in the evenings. It almost like the guts were torn out of the community. 

Like most knee jerk government programs all over the world it was implemented with little local input, common sense or means and methods of controlling the unintended outcomes (speeding etc)

[OnMyWay]

1 hour ago, scott h said:

Along Quirino blvd they are not strictly enforcing a 24 hour no parking

I think you meant "they are strictly enforcing"?

I think one of the main points was to increase the speed of traffic, since Manila has such bad traffic.

Your unintended consequences seem like a small trade off to me, considering the benefits for most people.  Cars may be going faster but at least people have a chance to walk on the sidewalk instead of in the street.

This is not really a new government program.  It is enforcement of current laws.  Enforcement is something we know is lacking so I view these changes as very positive.

[scott h]

17 minutes ago, OnMyWay said:

small trade off

I agree in most cases 

17 minutes ago, OnMyWay said:

chance to walk on the sidewalk

Where there is a sidewalk. Again, this is only an observation about my little slice of paradise .  My area is the original "downtown" of the stop over between Manila and Cavite so the infrastructure is not that developed or just plain outdated.  Along our sidewalks (just wide enough for one person) over the years the  city has installed huge light posts making a pedestrian step into the gutter. Now that the "gutters" are cleared of parked cars scooters run in the area that a person is forced to walk on 

Don't get me wrong, I approve of the improvements, its just that some of the improvements were implemented with out measures to control some of the side effects. 

[Arizona Kid]

12 hours ago, Jollygoodfellow said:

Maybe this video should be in a different forum but for those who says nothing gets done/ 

 

 

Maybe you haven't been reading the posts lately in the forum. Most of us agree that the road clearing operations have been very successful. The cleaning of Manila bay has started..but without follow up it will quickly turn into yesterdays news. Cleaning the bay will not make any difference if people keep throwing their trash into the rivers that feed into it.  

[Marvin Boggs]

7 hours ago, scott h said:

Along our sidewalks (just wide enough for one person) over the years the  city has installed huge light posts making a pedestrian step into the gutter

After the first few months of living here, when I was still car-less, a thought occurred to me.   For a culture that is so heavily 'walking intensive', its amazing so little effort is given to pedestrian access.  This seems systemic all the way up and down:  sidewalks (if they exist) are too narrow and are situated on top of stinky storm drains.  Until recently, people were often forced to walk around parked cars, out in the roadway itself.  On rural roads, there is no shoulder on which to walk, so people are forced to walk on the road...which itself is only two lanes wide with NO extra margin.  We would all have a gazillion examples of uncovered holes, low hanging wires, and other hazards to pedestrians.  Enforcing these roadway ordinances is a great first step, but I don't know what the second step would be without ripping it all up and starting over.  

[Jollygoodfellow]

1 hour ago, Arizona Kid said:

Cleaning the bay will not make any difference if people keep throwing their trash into the rivers that feed into it.

But maybe you haven't been keeping up with the demolition of houses on the rivers and canals and relocating the residents. Also walls being built and trash traps installed. Yes people still doing it but better than it was. 

[Mike J]

On the road to our house here in Moalboal there is wall after wall, and even some houses that now are marked for demolition and/or set back with a large spray painted "X".   There is supposed to be a one meter set back from the road to any structure.  The walls and some of the building actually go right up to the edge of the road.  Spray paint is cheap, so we will see if there will be any actual demolition.