i will bet my christmas bonus that over half the population of pasonanca, sta. maria, gov. camins, and gov. ramos are on the verge of insanity. yes i will.
about two months ago, whoever is in charge of these things decided that the jollibee camins intersection needed to be fixed. as for me, me with my constant whining about how poorly the government maintains its infrastructures, i could not see what it was that needed fixing. could not see anything wrong at all. i, i, i, yenyen, i who could and would see the minutest wrong in ANYTHING, could not see anything wrong with the jollibee camins intersection AT ALL.
and if someone better than me (is that possible? how?) did manage to uncover even one ugly structural defect about that road, nothing could possibly be so bad as to merit the evil, devil, hevil, baweevil traffic that that....road re-construction is unleashing on the seven million people who have no option but to use that intersection to go to and from home to work, school, errands in pueblo, ukay-ukay in sta. cruz, etc., etc..
heck, if those verging-on-insane residents finally succumb, their families, verging on insanity themselves, will also be pushed over the edge as they try to navigate that intersection on the way to the mental facility in zamboanga medical hospital. families that go through that road together, go mental together.
to illustrate. yesterday, i thought eating lunch at busy bee camins would alleviate what my friends and family diagnosed as migraine. (thanks, guys. and there i was, ecstatic that i was finally going to be able to justify getting a nice looking pair of reading glasses. false alarm pala). so, stupid planner that i am, left the office at 12:10 and took a tricy to camins. ooops. the line started just before manang terry's chicken inato on canelar. the movement of the line can be measured in millimeters. i was hungry. i had a headache. it was still very muggy. it was dusty. i had no load so texting was out. i did not bring a book nor the ipod. di ba i told you na i am a stupid planner?
fast forward to the year 2017, the tricy driver and i were within sight of the triangular rotunda. a couple of years more and we were under the traffic light, turning left towards the new chowking where gonzalo's convenience store used to be (note to self: try that place soon. compare to chowking near mindpro where service and servings are amazingly... disappointing), then finally, in front of la terraza, with the goal so, so, so very close, a pasonanca jeep plugs the flow. it wants to u turn. it came from pueblo like us, it entered the road going to the airport like us, but unlike us, it wants to u turn in front of la terraza so that it can go back up to the intersection and proceed to sta maria, then to its ultimate destination, pasonanca.
hair straightening business is probably on a roll now too.
when i got to busy bee, my friend marsha, looks at me knowingly, and asked: "how many minutes?" and "how many did you make mura to?".
well, just one. the kundoktor of that pasonanca jeep. but hindi naman mura. just a gentle, "hoy! bastusan na yan!!!".
granted, the city government is trying to keep things tidy. they have succeeded i guess in the sense that i have not heard of a driver killing another driver so far. how do i know the agents are the city government's? they all wear this gray t shirt that reads C-E-L-S-O, that's why. It is an acronym for Community Elegant Landing Something Other. haha. joke.
hey. i have a tip. if you are coming from pueblo on the way to sta. maria and you do not want to do the u-turn in front of la terraza, stay on right side of the road, hug the curve in front of jollibee, go over that little bridge on the right side of jolibee, pretend you are going to ukay-ukay (as added motivation) then, when you are in front of 3rd cup cafe, do a u-turn. go back up the same road, then turn right after the bridge and you are on your merry way to sta maria.
how is this different from the la terraza maneuver? that goes left, this goes right. that's all.
"the new chowking where gonzalo's convenience store used to be " oh no!!!!! where do i get cigies,booze, load and food late at night na then?
ReplyDeleteHay santissima! Traffic isn't a new problem in Zamboanga. It's been pestering our lives over and over again. Prevalent ya se, and dol un impermadad. nuay man tamen esfuerzo el gobierno local para solva konese problema kay si pensa malisud ya gyt solba. If I can recall, asegun el original city plan gayot de antes nuay man foresee that Zamboanga would one day become a busy and thriving City. The Americans made the roads smaller because kalesas and few private vehicles were the only mode of transportation then. So now, despite of the government's eforts to widen roads in the city to address the problem on traffic it still couldn't yield positive results. But then, there will always be open solutions to this problem. Disiplina lang gayot el necesita and that I believe el nuay kita. Ara taqui yo abroad igual lang gayot syempre el problema, bweno kay na pueblo lang kame ta keda. hehe
ReplyDeletebuddha b, don't worry. they just gave the corner lot to chowking. the convenience store is right beside it. hehe. gonzalos is where we always end up buying ice cubes during the christmas season.
ReplyDeletegelo, zamboanga could follow the cebu model of an uptown and a downtown area, right? move commercial real estate either to the west coast or to the east coast, or better yet, to both, to decongest what is now the city proper. the new commercial area/s will of course have larger roads, better parking. i am against widening the narrow roads in the old pueblo because that would mean taking down the old - some historical - buildings.
for me, it boils down to three things: a strong-willed and innovative government, an involved private sector, and a disciplined citizenry.
love your chavacano. sorry i can't respond using the language. it's not because i don't want to. it's because i have the worst chavacano ever. bien umalin gayot!
Yes, very well said. I believe that those three factors are necessary to bolster that change in the city. But then, the initiative, I believe must come first from our public officials. That is precisely the reason why we voted for them. Yes, the pueblo is too cluttered. That is why we have two districts diba? so that each of these districts would have their fair share of progress. Why should they concentrate more on the downtown area when there are many vacant lots in the east and west coast area which can also be feasible for business? Well, I believe Zamboanga City really needs that change.A change in leadership perhaps.. hehe..Beng Climaco is one of those few leaders whom I regard as honest and sincere. Nuay biases y hinde ta tiene miedo habla kosa el verdadero sentido del mayoriya. Someone who can walk her talk and not vindictive nor pushy. Maybe somebody just has to stay in la vista del mar and rest from politics.Enjoy the view of the sea! hehe
ReplyDeletegelo, i like beng too, actually. :)
ReplyDelete