Mixed-use

THE first time I saw the blue fence that has begun to secure the Manresa Town and Xavier University’s Masterson Campus, I was teary-eyed.

Staring at the Manresa trees each time I pass by has become one of my hard habits to break, and for these to be gone soon, replaced by buildings, is now making me nostalgic of the peaceful and quiet uptown Cagayan de Oro when traveling to the Lumbia airport was comparable to going to Neverland.

The uptown area had no malls, gated villages, buildings, restos, and bars then. It was almost a forest. An officemate who had to fly to CDO to join our team here almost flew back to Manila upon seeing the forest below before the plane landed at the airport. She thought, What have I gotten myself into? Six months later, she resigned. Haha. And that’s after we were both assigned at the Makati main office. She figured she’d never be a probinsyana.

I, on the other hand, studied in Manila, and came back to CDO after college. Once a probinsyana, always a probinsyana. But CDO has managed to not remain rural, and a Cagayanon is no longer a probinsyana. The current CDO would now be unrecognizable to my former officemate if we were to work as newbies in that corporation again but at the present time. And most probably she would decide to live here, to escape from Manila’s overpopulation, pollution, and traffic congestion. Wait, traffic? CDO has that, too. But not as bad as Manila.

The Manresa Town and XU Masterson Campus developer did promise to keep the forest reserve. But I’m already missing its current rustic look even if it’s still there.

The development paves the way for Xavier Ateneo’s 100th anniversary in 2033. How old will I be by then? Hmmm. But it’s not about me. It’s about the bustling uptown area that has been constantly changing since we transferred here in 2014.

The Xavier Ateneo campus in downtown CDO will also undergo major changes, making Corrales Avenue busier than usual since the provincial capitol property at the other end of that avenue will also have its own mixed-use development.

Mixed-use may mean there’s a condo building here, an office building there, a mall somewhere, and stores, restos and bars everywhere, hopefully with a school building and church nearby. With the hope that the condo residents will find work at the office building, encouraging them to spend their days within the community, thereby lessening the number of cars that would have brought these condo residents from point A to the rest of the alphabet for other points.

When Xavier Estates was trying to attract buyers in the early ‘90s, some of the promises included a school, a church, a clubhouse, and a golf course. The schools—plural, more than one—nearby have become true, there’s a chapel inside the village, and the clubhouse was the building that was built first in the ‘90s. As for the golf course, it’s Pueblo that made that a reality. You can’t have everything.