PAREX: Sacrificing urban vitality for a traffic ‘solution’

In this essay, fellow urbanist April Valle and I criticise the proposed Pasig River Expressway (PAREX) as a means to re-engineer our metro’s fabric for bypass-implant urban development. We also dwell on international precedent projects and strategies that can better and holistically approach the existing city, most esp. the Pasig river environs.

Thank you to Rappler for publishing our work. Read the full article here: https://www.rappler.com/voices/imho/opinion-parex-sacrificing-urban-vitality-traffic-solution

Illustration by Nico Villarete

‘Community pantries are a form of placemaking’

The community pantry movement in the Philippines is a phenomenon, and it’s something I’ve been dwelling on for more than a month. I published the article ‘Community pantries are a form of placemaking’ in CNN Philippines Life, where I dwell on how the movement counters the rigidity posed by pandemic measures in the country.

I’m also fascinated by how much the spaces where the numerous pantries are located. Initially, I created a collage to understand this:

Now, I’m further researching about the pantries and writing about it as a case study for our research project at the Max Lock Centre, University of Westminster.

If you’re also researching about the pantries, some helpful resources include the Saan Yan PH dashboard, the Facebook Group Community Pantry PH, and an article published by the Philippine Sociological Society.

On women and the Philippine city

This has been a long time coming in my mind, but I finally found courage to write it. Leslie Kern’s Feminist City really resonated with me when I read it a year ago in London, and now that I wade through Philippine cities and battle with patriarchal space, words just came out pouring, and I finished writing this in a few minutes. CNN Philippines Life published this in time for International Women’s Day, and within two hours of this being online, I received so much “Me Too” feedback on having to find clean public bathrooms while menstruating, keeping safe at night, and just generally, making it as a women in the urban, patriarchal jungle.

Read my essay here, and I’d love to discuss how we can improve cities to cater more for women and girls.

From lakes to bays, we need blue spaces for our mental health

Rethinking our urban fabric has floated in my thoughts since the pandemic began; there is so much we could do with what already exists in our cities. I cannot emphasise enough how my being in London’s parks for most of 2020 brought me sanity to cope with so much stresses during that year — research, international travel, and, well, simply managing to all the changes. I could only wish I had access to blues and greens while I’m staying in Manila now.

In this essay, fellow Chevening alumnus Julze Alejandre and I share our thoughts about blue spaces, mental health, and COVID-19. As always, thank you to CNN Philippines Life for publishing our writing.

Bracing informal communities for COVID-19

With COVID-19 threatening the world, many countries are challenged with how to deal with informal spaces, congested areas, and communities with low or no capacity to deal with the pandemic.

I recently worked with INKLINE to publish a guide on how we can better brace our communities to have a fighting chance. This guide looks into more tactical and affordable actions on protecting families in crowded areas. Read the article here.

If you know friends who work with informal communities, kindly share the guidelines with them. Keep safe, everyone!