I am heading
uptown from the financial district in NYC where I live to Grand Central to get
to work. Although the cars are packed and there is no room to move and I
am jammed like a QB that is about to get sacked, I am amazed at the marvel of
the subway. It's truly amazing. I can get from downtown to midtown in
15 minutes (without minor subway delays)...and this route was built in the
early 1900s (http://bit.ly/28YdGEp).
Moving on
from NYC....Let's talk about to my hometown, Manila. I was in Manila recently
(May 2016) and was talking to a local healthcare worker about how he gets to
work. He takes the MRT (http://bit.ly/290CUqm) to get around and he says it's painful to get to and from
work on his hour long ride. He says it breaks down about over 50% of the
time. Even if it's 25% or say 10-15%, that is a lot. How would you
like to get to work and be stuck 10-25% of the time on a public transportation
system? Would that empower you to start
your day on a high note? Not fun, huh? Can you imagine if you
took the subway from Astoria to Manhattan every day to work which normally
takes 40 minutes according to Google Maps (BTW, where the hell is Astoria?)
and you were stuck for a large percentage of the time?
For the last
year or so, I noticed Facebook posts from my friends and family I grew up
with in Manila were complaining about traffic. And if you asked anyone in
Manila if traffic is a problem, you are not going to get a good response…frustration,
anger, and lack of hope. Think of Cleveland fans before LeBron took over
the series and brought his hometown the prize...I am digressing. Back to Manila....How
can you grow if you can't get people around to and from work? According
to the BBC (http://bbc.in/298Vm0W), Manila is the worst place
to drive in the world. And there is only one major public transportation
route the MRT...no buses and jeepneys don't count. I am talking high
speed or something that moves that is not on a road or highway.
Which brings
me to my next point, how is Manila supposed to really prosper and take
advantage of its main assets: western culture, friend of the USA, English speaking,
educated people, warm people, and a country that aspires to be great, if the
population can't move around. Check out this map to show how crowded
Manila has gotten (http://bit.ly/29mgHjv)
This is why I
believe this is former President Marcos greatest crime. How the F did he
not think of this when he took over in 1965 and build a transportation? And to the next Presidents that follow him,
where is the vision and guts to make it happen?
Take a look at every major prosperous global city and they have a major
high speed rail/subway or some sort of mass transportation systems: Tokyo,
London, Seoul and Chicago.
So how can
Manila and the Philippines fix this problem? Can they build a subway on
the fly or expand the MRT? Imagine how much worse the traffic will get if
they build one? I have thought about this and I really don't know the
answer. One solution I came up with is to build a new city from the
ground that is super modern that can be the new Manila. Maybe Cavite
which is close enough (30 miles) can become a hub and they can build a train
that connects it to Manila and also build a light rail or something to take
people around Cavite? But then what happens to Manila then, do property
values go down, restaurants might suffer, malls will suffer, and hotels lose
revenue, etc.?
There has to
be a solution. I hope that new President Duterte makes this his mission
and has the guts to make something happen. He vowed to shake things up (http://yhoo.it/291ly94)... Can he make
something good happen on the transportation front? I hope so.
Manila is a special place and the Philippines is a great country. For
those who have lived there and visited, you get it... I really hope that
there is a solution…God Bless the Philippines and Mabuhay (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mabuhay)
