Manila, The Philippines

Manila, The Philippines
Population of Metropolitan Area: 20,075,000 World Rank: 5
Population Density: 14,090/km^2
Gross Domestic Product: $108,000,000 USD World Rank: 43
Year Founded: 1574

Manila like the rest of the Philippines has a very layered and storied past. The city was founded as a Jesuit Spanish Mission, and was originally the walled city of intramuros. Giant stone walls and a moat surrounded the city from hostile natives, the likes of which most famously beheaded Ferdinand Magellan. Intramuros is the oldest part of the city, and though it was the second most extensively bombed area during WWII, the area has been largely rebuilt and now is a major tourist destination. This layer of Spanish settlement gives way a city planed as an American territory by renowned city planner Daniel Burnham. While sections of the city were completed the city today is a jumble of changing influences and plans layered over top of pervious and incomplete plans.

It’s hard to describe the chaos of the city that is Manila. My first experience of Filipino culture is that they seem to have no concept of a line. At the airport people would rush, and cut in line, just to get to another line. A similar experience takes place on the streets of Manila every day. Residents self proclaim that the traffic in Manila is so bad that it is the second worst in the world behind only Bangkok. The real problem lies in the lack of public utilities like sidewalks and traffic lights. These problems are being addressed as new highways are being built and an elevated train services a good part of the city, but clearly the city has expanded much faster than its infrastructure. Space in the city has become a real problem. Houses are built touching each other and on interior lots with no real access to the street. On the fringe of town its actually and impressive sight to see shanties line a stream built by salvaged materials and rising three and four stories tall. As is logical in an area so densely populated, pollution has become a real problem. Since the city is hot and humid the effects of smog and exhaust fumes are exacerbated. The problem has become so extreme that there are days of the week where certain numbered license plates cannot drive.

Despite some of these disadvantages, the city operates in a way that is fascinatingly pure and organic. Most everything that is built is done so for a purpose, and as such the architecture is not only logical but responsive to the cities unique environment. Crowded twisting alleys are lined with stores, shops, and restaurants, and despite the location or building design, the businesses are always packed. To me it’s very interesting to compare the strategies employed in American cities to get stores and restaurants to open downtown with the natural occurrence and necessity of such businesses in crowded Asian cities like Manila.

On a fundamental basis Manila functions very well in a number of ways. The city is certainly vibrant and is very walkable for its immense scale. However the cities transportation problems combined with its extreme overcrowding make the city feel chaotic and overwhelming. For the first time I think I can understand the draw of suburban life in comparison to the chaos of this type of city life. I wonder if American cities were in a similar situation at the turn of the century before the flight to the suburbs took place. I also wonder if that indeed was the case, how a city like Manila will respond to the changes growth and development bring, especially in regards to the number of mistakes I believe American cities made during this period of their development.