⌛ Lessons from Burnham Park

Tomorrow's picture of Dumaguete is a congested city suffering from disrepair and social maladies.

Along with historic developments in Dumaguete comes the rapid population growth significantly so because of the continuing influx of migrants from either other provinces or even the bigger cities.

"Among the major problems this City will face are traffic congestion, and informal settlements," says Ned Carlos, principal architect of Carlos & Antique Architects. "These problems will get worse at the first half of this century, posing great challenges to City officials and residents."

Until we learn from the mistakes of megacities like Metro Manila and Metro Cebu, Dumaguete City can never spur proper urbanization, and what we hope for our beloved Oriental Negros would already be dead, Carlos warned.



He recalled that in 1905, one of the great city planners, Daniel Burnham, submitted his proposal for carrying out the master plans for the City of Manila - three years before he prepared the plan for the City of Chicago.

"Burnham was the legendary architect responsible for carrying out the master plan for the cities of Washington DC, Chicago and the Philipines' summer capital, Baguio City, where his name is immortalized through the Burnham Park," Carlos added.

The vision of Burnham was to make Manila the most beautiful city in the Far East just as Washington DC is the best planned city in the United States. He prepared the master plan of Manila for a population of 800,000. The city's population in 1903 was only 223,029. The plan was to make Manila a city of natural and architectural wonders, complemented with parks and plazas with fountains that add to the charm and refreshment of the value of the park.

The plan for the City of Manila was truly something grand, and as Burnham would put it, "...Pearl of the Orient". Unfortunately, only a fraction of his plan was carried out.

"Dumaguete is on the same road, until we recognize that urbanization is really about the physical environment, nature or man made: visually pleasing (at most times exhilarating), functional, livalbe, and eco-freindly," Artchitect Carlos said.

 

I thought that the former Dumaguete Mayor had the right idea to decongest DUmaguete by his plans to transfer city hall to Bajumpandan, to make Perdices Street a pedestrian only road, construct a marina by the boulevard, etc. We need futuristic leaders in Negros Oriental with a vision to improve sustainably the province and its cities.

 

If that was a plan, it sounds like a good one. Getting the 3000 trikes spread out or "allocated" to use a neutral term, would be a good idea.

Many historic street districts in developed nations have "malls" meaning pedestrian only streets with shopping and entertainment areas. Safety and crime issues could them be focused to these areas, where tourists and shoppers congregate.

 

Ex-Mayor Felipe Remollo's Master Plan for Dumaguete was worked out with the help of an expert Urban Planner(Dr. Efren Padilla). I just wish that the present leaders go beyond politics and adopt plans that bring urban organization in a professional way.

 

I have a copy of Dr. Padilla's lecture on urban planning in Silliman. Maybe I'l post that here...

 

That would be great, Echir. Yes, I'd like to read that lecture. Thanks. B