Here and There
Dagupan balikbayans here for a look-see
By Gerry Garcia
DAGUPAN has become a bustling city and its main streets are teeming with local and out-of-town shoppers and passenger jeepneys and buses do clog the traffic lanes that the authorities are compelled to allow only a one-way flow.
The Arellano-Bani street, once bereft of traffic has now become one of the city’s busiest streets because it’s the vicinity of a huge shopping mall a block away from the Region I Medical Center; right across the street from the NEPO Mall sits the promising Colegio de Dagupan (once Computronix College of Voltaire Arzadon); its not-distant neighbor is the University of Pangasinan.
What amazes the returning Dagupan balikbayan more is the downtown’s market center which now includes the City Supermarket Inc. (CSI) another shopping mall, Magic Club — all drawer of so huge a crowd that triggered the construction of a pedestrian overpass across AB Fernandez Avenue.
At the western outskirts of the city (Lucao) stands another arm of CSI which could make the eyes of the visiting balikbayan pop out because of the expansive area of the mall and vast number of out-of-town shoppers’ cars hogging the mall’s available parking space.
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Another major infrastructure project of the city which has kept the visiting balikbayan grinning from ear to ear is the P996 M new bridge across the Pantal River, part of the multi- billion Dawel-Pantal-Lucao new diversion road expected to beat the deadline for its completion in March this year. This forms part of the city’s inner traffic. The other part, the de Venecia diversion road from Calasiao to Lucao-Dagupan, is now in place.
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Our visiting fellow-Dagupeño, however raises his eyebrows at a remaining relic — the City Hall. The current Dagupan City Hall is a face-lifting, no more, no less of the original Dagupan presidencia still sitting in the center of the city’s booming market which has made the City Hall’s parking area pathetically constricted.
We feel even Mayor Al himself, even if agreeable to the idea of converting MacAdore International Hotel into City Hall, is not inclined to hold office in the midst of the city’s bustling trade and traffic.
A preferred alternative, among others, for the site of a new City Hall (or government center) would be in the vicinity of the Bonuan Tondaligan Park in Barangay Bonuan, the city’s largest barangay sitting on a coast facing the historic Lingayen Gulf.
(Readers may reach columnist at sundaypunch2@yahoo.com. For past columns, click http://sundaypunch.prepys.com/archives/category/opinion/here-and-there/ For reactions to this column, click “Send MESSAGES, OPINIONS, COMMENTS” on default page.)
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