"WE'RE building a whole new world at 10 times the speed... in just 30 years." Are we ready?

This is what will greet you when you visit the website of The World Bank this week. It's the blurb to its feature story on its new thrust for urban development that seeks to promote ecologically sustainable and economically viable cities.

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The question could be addressed directly to us, Dabawenyos, as we hum in denial of the blight that is eating into our city amid worsening traffic, ill-disciplined drivers, and the pestilence of all habal-habals and unregistered trisiboats acting like they were the kings of the road.

First, there is the issue of the carbon emission of two-stroke motorcycles. In just that, we flunk the readiness test.

Then there is the issue of sidewalks or what remains of it. It has often been said that a walkable city is a healthy city. Ours isn't. You can't even walk the stretch of Quezon Boulevard without fearing for your life as pedestrians are forced to walk right on the road's carriageway where sidewalks disappear or have been taken over by some sidewalk entrepreneur. It's worse in R. Castillo where there is no sidewalk to speak of, and the whole stretch of J.P. Laurel Avenue.

No one in his right mind will have the guts to walk, and so they ride -- their cars, the jeepneys, and yes, the ever-reliable door-to-door delivery offered by a trisiboat.

Is something being done? Nothing except that occasional crackdown on sidewalk vendors for violating the 1/2-2/3 rule of occupying a sidewalk. Nothing is even done to full-fledged stores that occupy half of the sidewalk for their baggage counters while the whole pedestrian community walk on the street.

We are so proud of our water but cannot even think of showing massive concern for its protection, blind to the reality that all potable water sources will dry up and be gone forever if abused and not protected.

And, yes, we have conveniently refused to see the blight that is Isla Verde and all coastal barangays that pour out their sewage and garbage directly into the sea. We cannot even conceive of alloting funds for sewage treatment if not septage management, prefering to stash all these concerns away where no one will notice.

But we only have to sniff the waters off Sta. Ana Pier and to sit through traffic along Quezon Boulevard at rush hour to know that the city we are all so proud of has let a lot of necessary concerns, about environment, about discipline, about living, fester into what will soon become a complex urban disaster similar to Manila.

But we will continue to be blind if all we can do is make excuses for ourselves, for the traffic congestion that is getting worse by the year, our undisciplined drivers, even our tolerance for unregistered, unfranchised trisiboats running around our main streets, our lack of concern for our sewerage and septage, our apathy against plantations eating into our watersheds and national park, and, yes, the state our sidewalks are in.

All these require political will. All these require massive funds. Still, if we do not put up now, it will just cost more and more. Worse, the cost will no longer just be in terms of money but in terms of our environment, the "most livable" city we are most proud of, our health, our sanity, our waters, and our future. Blight is already at our doorsteps, we cannot afford to wait too long.

You don't believe us? Then take a walk along the footbridges of Isla Verde.