Urban Streets of Makati | Outer City Reality

How far have you walked around the city of Makati and take notice about its terrain in your everyday life? When you mention “Makati City” your perspective about it that this is the Central Business District of the country where all commerce and trade has been about the Manila Stock Exchange and vibrant marketing that is “Make it Makati.” The thought that there have been other cities competing to be a model for urban life that Makati is still the city that would be comparable to Melbourne, New York, Sydney, Hong Kong, and Singapore.

But when you look far beyond Main Street of Makati you see what is ‘The Real Makati” outside the glamorous sugarcoated street of Ayala Avenue and that has been like Adelaide’s King William Street. Comparison aside Adelaide had better infrastructure but it is not as popular the City State like Melbourne or Sydney, but a regional state that would be considered a high end version of Davao City with less clutter and more organized than even Cebu City.

When you’re in Makati City you’ll not notice about the streets besides Ayala Avenue because most people would end up at the Glorietta or Greenbelt Mall to even bother walk past the other parts of this well adored city. But if you’re someone who want to explore the nook and cranny of this urban populace who thinks beyond the glamour and vibrant there’s this reality that some would just ignore and go about their everyday just to pass through all the nitty-gritty truth what you see in this Metropolitan.

This is how they park their cars in Makati.

Sidewalk Parking

It might only happen in the Philippines and it might shock some but this must have been the “normal” way to park if you don’t have a garage space. So what happens to the sidewalk where people walk along do they take the stroll in the middle of the road?

This must be how ethics that even the Makati City Government has allowed to do so due to lack of space. Probably, the only alternative way to keep the road wide open is to take the remaining sidewalk as a parking lot. It must be eyesore for those not in the know that most of the vehicles that drop off people in their car they have to take the whole side just park for a few second to unload their passenger in this style of manner.

If you're not looking or even aware of it you'll still end up in this hole.

No Safety Standards

It must be dangerous to walk at night or even daytime when an open hole is not properly installed with a safety net for the pedestrian, disabled with wheelchair, or even the blind. A ribbon as part of a makeshift stanchion is not a safety device to ward off people walking in this sidewalk along the south superhighway. It must be how the Philippine safety standards are conducted compared to what is actually considered below international standards for people to get hurt without proper set-up.

The assigned construction must have been stingy with the safety devices and how it looks unsafe for someone even aware that there’s an open hole. What is DPWH (Department of Public Works and Highways) doing to make this a safe place for pedestrians?

No proper pedestrian crossing as evident of no proper infrastructure.

Looks like a scene from "The Walking Dead" with this train station.

Railway Aesthetics

It is unbelievable that people ever survive such terrain crossing the railway every day for as long as they can remember. There’s no proper structure for people to cross this and you see broken up asphalt and the recent construction of the main highway DID fix a new sidewalk but no continuity to even make a proper crosswalk for the pedestrians.

Safety must be a priority to all pedestrians FIRST then vehicles only a second as it shows that the Buendia/Gil Puyat train station is not properly constructed to be Pedestrian Friendly mostly to the disabled or senior citizens to even walk nearby. Yes, the trains are working but not properly constructed for the people to even have a decent platform to stand.

No proper pick-up or drop-off for public transport this side of Buendia/Gil Puyat.

Improper Pick-up and Drop-Offs

At the corner of the South Super Highway and Buendia/Gil Puyat near the train station there’s no standard Bus/Jeepney Stop or a Loading/Unloading platform it’s like you have to fight your way to other pedestrians to get a ride out seems like a scene from a zombie apocalypse film.

The aesthetic here is there’s no proper structure as Buses or Jeepneys pick or drop off passenger as the way they pleases is also building enough traffic to clog this corner. This is part of Makati and it appears outdated with the concept that everyone is like in a war during rush hour in the morning and late in the afternoon. Imagine how this has been happening for more than a decade and to think Makati keeps marketing its city as a world class urban populace but when you turn the corner outside of Ayala Avenue you see how this looks like every day.

New haircuts for these streets along Buendia/Gil Puyat Avenue. 

Nice Haircut. We all wonder the tailor who did cut this tree's leaves.

Tree Haircuts

For a city that is running out of greenery and most of the parks that have been renovated has more concrete than grass you ever wonder how the trees looks like outside the main street. Well, have you seen a tree getting a haircut along Buendia/Gil Puyat at the beginning nearby the railway?

If these pictures show you how his happens all the time what is the point to put trees along this side of the street? A close up look at one of the trees seemed to have lost a lot of “hair” that seemed to be unnatural that supposed to have grown enough leaves to give shade for some of the vehicles below.

This what Filipinos working in Makati deal every day.

Always Keep your Eyes Open or You'll Stumble  in this type of Sidewalk Terrain.

Uneven Sidewalk Experience

Besides the weird high sidewalks in some of the residential area that have their cars eating up those spaces you can find that the ones along Buendia/Gil Puyat is like walking in a turf war. It is like an all-terrain situation that most people have to go through that this city doesn’t feel like advocating for everyone to walk but to spend their hard earned money on riding motorcycles, tricycles, pedicabs, jeepeneys, buses, or taxi cabs instead of a convenient healthy walk.

There must be a reason why Makati City Government or even the ones managing Ayala Avenue have put all their efforts in managing a good looking street instead of the entire metropolitan populace. The sidewalk is ankle high and there must be more than an excuse for floods. A foreigner would not even walk in this type of street deemed below human standards that they would rather let them take a transportation than promote healthy walking and reduce carbon footprint.

This Pedestrian just crossed over the Center Island while texting.

Pedestrian Lanes must be kept open even on heavy traffic, but that Jeepney over there drops off his passenger like a boss.

No proper bicycle lane in this city, not even a strict code for wearing proper safety gear in some bikers.

This is how the pedestrians are kept like a herd that it has become standard in most cities with this type of metal barriers.

The other side where there's no proper pick-up or drop-off fro public transport to even call it a sidewalk

Zero Morals & Ethics

They say change is within every one of us, but the way society dictates it those things are irrelevant. Just look at that guy crossing the street he has to walk over the plants in that center island like a boss. There’s A LOT of this happening on a normal week day to think these photos were taken during the weekend. To top it all off the public utility vehicles do not respect the pedestrian lanes that they don’t leave it open they have to jostle for position when traffic buildings up leaving the lanes cover to non-existent. Is this how Philippine society has become not to even have the proper ethics or discipline to make this a decent city?

Not counting people spiting in the streets and undocumented illegal way of urinating in the dark or even broad daylight would be considered human. There’s no term “lacking” than no morals to see Filipinos do this in the city that they want to be comparable to New York or Paris when the only part of the populace is Ayala Avenue when they can manage to fix the other parts of the city, but it leaves that to the government or even Ayala Corporation as the problem is not the people itself but the country.