.my.star.city.

A paper i wrote for my Urban Planning class. Topic: your neighborhood...

Our house sits neither in a subdivision nor a village but in an area where no gate separates the main road from the main street that connects the houses. Our house shares a ‘double-loaded corridor’ with 8 other houses. Its gate is a-little-less-than-20 meters away from the main road. The 2-meter ‘corridor’ is generally used by neighbors, tricycles, bikes, vendors, and playing children. Spaces flow continuously from the main road down to our street to the houses then to more houses and vacant lots and to South China Sea. These spaces make up the neighborhood that I grew up in. Through the years, my immediate neighborhood extended to east where I visit and play with my cousins and have another playground in the field of ponds and to south where I attended high school. Though my ‘own’ neighborhood may be a little different from the rest of the household, we generally share the same neighborhood.

Our neighborhood has changed from how I remember it as a child to a place trying to catch up to the changing needs of its inhabitants.

Our neighborhood gives the perfect setting of my childhood. The streets have become our bike track. The open area connecting our street to other streets has become our makeshift soccer field, baseball field or just another kids’ playground. The undeveloped basketball court has become our garden whenever we fly kites. Sari-sari stores have become our mall. The sea, field of ponds, and the shore have become our park. The ‘mahjongan’ next to our house has become our casino. And everything has just become our amusement park. 

Our neighborhood is between rural and urban. It has the feel of a typical ‘probinsya’ where trees are everywhere, spaces are generous, traffic is moderate, main road is narrower and less noisy (than in cities), people are much more laidback and warmer, calls of vendors of dirty ice cream, taho, and balot are part of everyday music, smiles and greetings of neighbors are unlimited and where by 10 pm, people are home already. On the other hand, it has the convenience of a simple city where the nearest chapels, schools, gas stations, computer shops, food places, and other small business establishments are few meters away. Moreover, a ride away gets us to another neighborhood to access the workplace, nearest hospital, market, restaurants, hotels, resorts, and other bigger establishments.

This neighborhood may one day change but it will always be my ‘comfort zone'. 

I even forgot to put my address- to think almost everyone in the class put theirs above all...