New Year's wishlist

We, our family, welcomed the New Year sans fireworks, the explosive ones, but with lots of fireworks, the figurative ones – hopes and dreams that brighten up lives for much longer than 15 minutes. At the dining table, we talked about our triumphs and regrets the past year, what we learned from those regrets and how to build on those triumphs.

After dinner, we all did what we could to stay awake to welcome the new year. As with most of us today, some of us went online to check on what friends are up to. I sat at the kitchen table and thought about Baguio, and my wishes for her in the coming year...

I wish for its leaders to understand and realize the wisdom of sustainable development and for them to also realize that happiness trumps empty economic figures that come as a result of environmental abuse and utter disregard for the city's heritage and future...

I wish for city hall to formally and with finality abandon their plan to put up gates around Burnham Park and the privatization of the Athletic Bowl in particular and the crass commercialization of our parks in general...

I wish for its businessmen and women to look beyond their bottomlines and realize their impact on the community, and exert more effort to lessen the negative and enhance the positive...

I wish for a more vibrant art scene, for the city's artists look beyond their differences, their affiliations and work together to paint a more colorful art and cultural skyline...

I wish for Panagbenga's powers-that-be to acknowledge that though they may be efficient managers, they lack creativity, sophistication and, sorry... taste and engage the services of people who can provide these for a more meaningful festival experience...

I wish for a renewed sense of community, beginning with barangay leaders, who I wish could set aside traditional politics and work for the welfare of their constituents and not of their benefactors in City Hall...

On the streets of Baguio, I wish for Trancoville and Aurora Hill jeepney drivers to start behaving like they really deserve their professional drivers licenses... and for Puso ng Baguio administrators to clean up the mess their tenants have made of the sidewalk directly fronting the building... for Tiongsan Harrison to look into the possibility of creating a transport bay (yes, it would eat up a bit into their building, but would result in much improved traffic flow in the area, which radiates throughout the CBD)... for City Center Hotel to admit that they totally disregarded local zoning laws, and make up for it by taking an active role in the re-greening and cleaning up of Session Road... for local malls to stop mulcting their customers for the use of their bathrooms... for our traffic management personnel to start coming up with better policies that would benefit the greater majority and not always those who already have more in life (e.g. the banning of jeeps that carry more passengers along Gen. Luna St. in the morning)... and for both pedestrians and motorists to respect traffic rules and regulations... and for SM City Baguio to honor their commitment to their re-designed expansion plan to save 90% of the remaining trees on Luneta Hill, and bring back the number 182, and transform the area into a nature park accessible to everyone, whether they're SM City Baguio patrons or not...

And I wish that every single resident, and indeed visitor, of Baguio to do their share, no matter how small, to make Baguio a better place for all of us.

Here’s to a meaningful New Year!