IF you’re a self-employed Cagayanon, meaning you can work from home, then stay home on Friday afternoons because that’s the worst time to travel around Cagayan de Oro — downtown, uptown, doesn’t matter, just stay home. Or go to midtown and hope there’s no traffic there.
Yes, CDO now has a midtown area. If you’ve been to Dear Joe, that’s midtown.
An uptowner friend of mine has learned to leave downtown at 3 pm to avoid the traffic. And she goes to the mall at 9 am to secure the parking area nearest to the mall entrance.
Yes, malling can now be as rigid as office hours if avoiding traffic is your priority. And it should be one of your priorities. Traffic jams are stressful. And you need stress like you need carbs as a source of energy. Hmmm.
Clueless downtowners are amazed when it’s about 5 pm and they’re stuck in traffic along Masterson Avenue in uptown CDO. Xavier Estates (XE) residents are lucky since they can always enter the village’s first gate, thereby avoiding the traffic jam from McDonald’s to Pan-chic. Or even the traffic jam to Korum by exiting through XE’s South Diversion Road gate.
The wise Cagayanon uptowner includes in his strategic planning the time to leave the house, the road to take, and where to park for each day that he has to travel to and from downtown CDO.
The Cagayanon who expresses his frustration over CDO’s current traffic situation to a city government official may only receive this response: traffic is a sign of progress.
That’s what I actually think of each time I’m stuck in traffic: it’s a sign of progress. The more traffic, the more progress. Yay.
Brainwash yourself, too, with that thought, and you’ll eventually believe that uncollected garbage, street vendors, and non-working traffic lights are also signs of progress.
I write this column while stuck in traffic. The day will come when the only time I can write this column is while stuck in traffic. Traffic equals column. Talk of motivation.
The more government officials trying to govern the country, the more chaotic the country becomes. Haven’t you noticed?
Pinas has all sorts of elected officials from the barangay level to the presidential level, and yet governance seems wanting. Most probably because allegedly the elected officials are busy securing their current and future situations and conditions. The campaign slogan to serve the country is allegedly there only to attract votes but not as a solemn promise.
Meanwhile, the taxpayer has to pay taxes despite his suspicion that most of the taxes end up in the deep pockets of corrupt government officials.
“A bridge over troubled water” are not merely Paul Simon lyrics in this corner of the world where the bridge is also troubled. And where the troubled water can be troubled to the max — floodwater destroying buildings and houses, dirty water coming out of faucets, water that can’t flow through defective drainage systems.
And floodwater lessens the number of passable streets, thus, causing more traffic.
