SEEING weeks ago one of the classy (because their products are very expensive) coffee shops hereabouts having a branch in Colon St. was, for me, a pleasant surprise. Of course that came with two malls with parking lots also rising in that stretch for months now. Colon St., once the city's main urban center and which has long lost its luster, is valiantly fighting to stay relevant.
That's why I like Cebu City Mayor Michael Rama's Executive Order 14-7, which earmarks P5 million to revitalize the country's oldest street. This time, "revitalization" no longer consists of merely putting up markers, improving the facade of establishments or holding night markets. It is meant to radically change the setup in Colon.
The most important proposal is the pedestrianization of Colon St. or, as Rama would say, making the street a walking zone. That means the city will free the street from vehicular traffic, which is what I have been suggesting for a time now. This gives the city a chance to transform Colon into what is now referred to as a green street.
The mayor wants to repair and improve the road and its drainage and sidewalk. He also seeks to establish and improve the street's historical landmarks. And while we are still at it, I would even suggest that the entire street be restored to its Spanish-
era look, or its approximation.
But I say transforming Colon St. into a walking zone is tricky and therefore needs deeper study. How will it affect, for example, business in the area and the flow of traffic in the surrounding streets? How will customers of the malls transport bought items to the jeepney stops? This should also be considered relative to the Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) plan.
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My elementary school years were mostly spent in City Central School at the corner of Osmeña Blvd. and P. del Rosario St. The area is not far from the then main commercial district in Colon St., which means that we kids eventually gathered the daring to go there.
The first films I watched were in the old Nation Theatre which once stood not far from what is now the Gaisano Capital mall at the corner of Colon and Leon Kilat streets. I forgot how much the price of the ticket was, but the moviehouse featured two films for the price of one ticket.
I learned to cut classes when I was in Grade 6 and watched Tagalog action films in Best Theatre, which was in the Leon Kilat side of what is now the Gaisano Capital mall. That moviehouse, in its rundown days, would show porn films, much like the old Queen Theatre at the corner of Colon and Legaspi St. years after.
Colon actually featured many moviehouses before the Betamax, then VHS and then the DVD, provided competition and before giant malls sprouted in other areas and featured “classy” theaters. There were Vision and Eden theaters in one block, Cinema in another and in the block across it Oriente. Near Queen Theatre were Ultravistarama and Seven Arts.
The corner of Colon and the old Juan Luna St. wasn’t the site of the Gaisano Metro decades back. If I remember correctly, it was even used as headquarters of the Kilusang Bagong Lipunan (KBL) in one of the elections under the then dictator Ferdinand Marcos. That portion of Colon became an area for mass gathering like rallies to protest Marcos’s rule.
Those are actually haphazard recollections. But I ticked them off because I want the readers to also email me whatever they can remember of Colon St. through the years. I am sure there are many readers out there who grew up roaming that stretch and partly learned life there.
(khanwens@gmail.com)