I went to downtown Manila this afternoon to buy some camera accessories. It was raining when I arrived in the train station of Recto and proceeded to Avenida.

I was surprised to see that Avenida Park is now once again open to traffic, with the familiar jeepneys now plying it's stretch from Recto to Sta. Cruz. I found that mayor Lim ordered its opening to traffic immediately after taking his office.

It can be remembered that during Mayor Atienza's term, he turned this stretch of Avenida into a public park, complete with tiled flooring, sculptured plants and cozy benches. I was so happy with this project of Mayor Atienza and even wrote something about the daily life of downtown Manila here.

Now Mayor Lim ordered to open it once again to traffic. I'm quite angry at this development. When I see something that has already been developed and beautified, and then recklessly ignored and turned back to what was ugly before, I feel angry.

Mayor Lim justified his action by saying that Avenida Park has become a haven for pickpockets, drug dealers, and prostitutes.
To my knowledge, these problems already existed in Avenida even during his first term as Manila Mayor, so the park should not be blamed for these happenings. Maybe Mayor Lim should have just increased police presence in the area..

Well, inasmuch as I want to rant about this, I can't do anything about it. But it definitely calms down my nerves a bit when I voice out my anger.



Jeepneys once again ply in this portion of Avenida that was previously made into a park during Mayor Atienza's term.


....and what it was before, a public park with cozy benches and tiled colored flooring...