Once a year, during the Baguio Flower Festival, Session Road is closed to traffic and booths are set up in the middle of the street. Tens of thousands of visitors promenade daily and sample the current offerings of Baguio businesses, as well as those “out-of-towners” who have the get-up-and-go to join the festivities.
And what does this news have to do with Baguio City?
1. First, I was asked last December to design the Go Dumaguete! website, and I will have to go there to do my research (junket!!) because some folks liked the Go Baguio! website and wanted the same for their “City of Gentle People.â€
2. Except that it’s a lot of sand and sea, Dumaguete is much like Baguio City: laid back lifestyle, lots of university students, koreans arriving in droves, small town where everybody knows everybody, jump off point to Apo and Siquijor Islands (like Baguio is to Sagada and Banaue), the Boulevard purportedly designed by Daniel H. Burnham (yes, it’s the Burnham Park guy, our city’s urban planner), everything cheap (ok, cheaper than here even), a thriving cottage industry, and a beautiful natural environment.
PAGASA Member
