Baguio City | The Adobo Chronicles

Sam Francisco's Crookedest Street — Sam Francisco’s Crookedest Street

San Francisco, California (The Adobo Chronicles) – A visit to San Francisco is never complete without photo opportunities by the Golden Gate Bridge, Coit Tower, TransAmerica Building, Alcatraz, Fisherman’s Wharf and of course, The Crookedest Street.

The famed Lombard Street section is famous for having a steep, one-block stretch that consists of eight tight hairpin turns. On either side of the street are homes that are probably among the top prized real estate in the City by the Bay.

Starting this summer, the city will close the street to weekend vehicular traffic in what it is calling an “experiment” to reduce congestion in the area and to provide the millionaire home owners a reprieve from the unending stream of vehicles navigating the brick pavement for the experience of a lifetime. (Apparently, many have not heard of Zigzag Road in the Philippines, leading up to the mountain city of Baguio).

Baguio City's Zigzag Road, Philippines — Baguio City’s Zigzag Road, Philippines

The Adobo Chronicles has obtained leaked documents from San Francisco’s City Hall that indicate the ‘experiment’ is actually a precursor to a more permanent plan to straighten the street to make room for homeowners to expand their existing real estate property. The city is poised to earn millions of dollars by selling part of the city street to the homeowners.

The documents also reveal an alternative plan – if the sale doesn’t work out – for the city to establish a toll gate at the top of the one-way street and charge each non-resident vehicle $10 to traverse the world’s crookedest street.

This plan could be up for a public vote as early as the next local elections.

Crooked or straight? Voters will decide. It could boil down to how straight and gay voters decide!

Baguio City, Philippines – Established in the 1900’s, Baguio City in Northern Philippines was developed by Americans primarily as a health resort where the American soldiers and civilian employees could find respite from the sweltering lowland heat. Designed by American architect Daniel Burnham, Baguio City was envisioned to have a resident population of no more than 30,000. Today, this summer resort is home to 300,000 people.

Baguio’s overpopulation has caught up with its dead. The Baguio City cemetery has reached more than its capacity, and the city government has a bright idea to make room for the dead and dying. According to a new city policy, graves of Americans and city residents may lose their place in the cemetery if no one visits them in five years.

Victor Padua, public services assistant of the City Environment and Parks Management Office (CEPMO), said his office was asking families to execute an agreement that stipulates that their dead are no more than tenants with rights to stay in the cemetery for five years, renewable only when they pay the five-year tenancy fee of One Hundred Pesos. The agreement is also a waiver that grants the city government the authority to remove their dead. It stipulates that the city cemetery managers “can transfer and/or rebury/re-inter the remains at other locations after the tenancy period if the relative fails to pay the corresponding fees for extension.”

Long-time residents of Baguio, many of whom have an average of 5 or 6 relatives buried in the cemetery, are gathering signatures for a petition to be presented to city hall. The petition demands that the Baguio City Hall be converted into a mausoleum as a way to solve the cemetery’s problem of overcrowding. “In this modern age where almost all city business can be transacted online, city officials and employees don’t need offices to do their job,” the petition says. It is estimated that the conversion will make available anywhere from 10,000 to 20,000 additional graves and vaults for cremated remains.

Mansion House, Presidential Summer Palace Photo Credit: boyetstour.blogspot.com — Mansion House, Presidential Summer Palace
Photo Credit: boyetstour.blogspot.com

The Adobo Chronicles also learned that residents are organizing a special “neighborhood watch” to be stationed at the cemetery to guard the tombs 24 hours a day in order to deter city officials from excavating graves and evicting the dead.

Petition leaders have reached out to President NoyNoy Aquino to intervene in this controversy. They threatened that if Aquino ignores their plea, they will come up with a second petition demanding that the Mansion House, the sprawling official summer residence of the Philippine president in Baguio City, be converted as well into a mausoleum and burial ground.