Crowds and despair in the city
February 11, 2006 | 12:00am
The senseless tragedy at ULTRA has stunned the whole country. It is a tragedy because scores of people died trying to get into an event meant to entertain and celebrate, but has been criticized as one that, in reality, exploits the desperation of the poor that make up to half of all Filipinos. This aspect has been the subject of countless op-ed pieces in the past week. They have linked the success of the TV show and the tragic event that marked its anniversary to the inadequacies of public agencies, along with private event organizers, the political battles involving the owners of the broadcast network and the government powers that be, the dismal state of our economy and ultimately the general breakdown of a society that has allowed this to happen.
The sad loss of lives, however, also points to other aspects touched only peripherally – that of the poverty of space and the inadequacies of urban design that define the megalopolis of Metro Manila. Whatever the cause of the stampede might have been, the loss of life can be partly attributed to the physical setting at the PhilSports complex. The indoor and outdoor stadiums were ill-configured to accommodate or process such huge crowds and the specific entrance where the stampede occurred was on a slope meant for vehicles rather than pedestrians – a space meant for the transit of vehicles rather than multitudes camped toilet-less and foodless for days.
The University of Life complex was designed in the ’70s to house an alternative educational institution that supported the agenda of the martial law regime. It was built based on an original complex that housed the St. Martin Technical School for boys (hence the name of the street). This was expanded to handle a larger student population, with new administration and library buildings and gifted with a track oval and dormitories. Adequate parking and access were located along Meralco Avenue. The original planners and architects did their job. It was the several changes in use and incremental alterations in the last 20 years that compromised the functionality and ultimately the safety of the complex.
The addition of the ULTRA stadium and the cutting-up of the complex for use by several institutions has led to problems of parking and traffic in the district. Like almost all other such complexes in the metropolis – schools, transport terminals, markets and shopping malls – adequate space, building setbacks, access routes, fire and emergency lanes, parking, lighting, green buffer zones – were not planned, much less provided for. Rational city planning and urban design codes in more progressive cities in the world emphasize these elements as important as the main facility itself; otherwise the complex does not get built.
Notice that in other countries, sports stadiums are set in the middle of gigantic parking fields or otherwise are provided with large-capacity multi-level parking garages that are connected with access and exit ramps to main streets or freeways. A lot of these parking garages are built and managed by the city or otherwise privatized (with considerable profits going to the local government). Public transport links (in countries that rely on them more than cars) are also a main consideration in the zoning of areas for these facilities.
Such a parking structure at the ULTRA or adjacent to it (say, at the underutilized Rizal Provincial Capitol complex) should be built. No such pressure to provide support infrastructure, however, exists in a metropolis where urban development is piecemeal and unregulated. Metro Manila’s orderly growth is also fractured under overlapping jurisdictions of 17 local government units and countless national and local agencies.
Physical development in the whole metropolis, like ULTRA’s evolution, has been incremental and problems attendant to such un-guided and unbridled growth are covered up with patch-up, short-term solutions like zoning waivers, U-turns and road-widening. Other urban problems are left alone to find their own solutions – like informal housing (squatters), drugs and crime (a nefarious co-existence with syndicates and the police themselves, say many) or waste management (basura villages).
All these lead to threats to life, limb and social cohesion. Wrongly located malls and factories steal water and pollute the air in residential zones. U-turns have spotty effectiveness and accidents are daily occurrences. Flyovers, highway access ramps, and LRT pedestrian walkways are badly designed because they have to be squeezed into inadequate space – leading to death and injury with alarming regularity.
The fact is that being squeezed is a definition of daily life in the city. Crowds and crowding belie an overwhelming reality that there are too many people with too little space – exacerbated by too little basic infrastructure to deal with even everyday situations, not to mention occasional events involving multitudes. There seems to be tragedy waiting to happen at every ill-designed corner.
The whole metropolis is a tragedy already unfolding. We little realize that we are part of this humongous urban crowd stampeding towards disaster. Bad air has increased pulmonary disease and pollution begets increasing morbidity that is unmitigated by an inadequate health system. Fire disasters are seasonal and increasing in frequency with the dwindling capacities of our firefighters. Barangays get buried in basura (Payatas), partygoers are burned to a crisp (Ozone) and whole neighborhoods disappear (Cherry Hill).
The crush of an exploding population is a disaster of immense proportions. Government (legitimate or not) has proven ineffective in addressing economic, much less social problems that stem from failing to acknowledge the issues of growth management (increasing population and politics) and sustainable development. Metropolitan problems, where the crush of people is greatest, can only be addressed if considered in a regional context as our three major city-conurbations affect such large ecologic areas (Metro Manila, Metro Cebu and Metro Davao).
On a micro scale, proper urban design is a requisite before building public facilities or private complexes (like malls) that are to cater to huge crowds and events. If tourism is to prosper here, then planners and government authorities have to assure local and foreign tourists that events in the range of 50,000 to several hundred thousand participants can be held with minimum injury and no loss of life.
Finally, as much as the loss of lives, we face a loss of decency and self-respect as a society if the tragedy at ULTRA does not bring change – in the way we structure our physical environment, in the way we (government and private sector) take responsibility for our actions (or inaction), and in the way we look at ourselves as members of our large, interconnected Filipino family. What tragedy will our aimlessness and desperation as a nation lead to next?
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