Wanton use of public space

BACK to the subject of public space from last week. Yesterday, I saw a graphic violation or disrespect of public space in a two-story building built on the Roxas Boulevard promenade along the sea wall near the Manila Yacht Club. This is a public space for walking along Manila Bay from Roxas Boulevard and has always been so except for the ill-thought-out market stalls that one Manila mayor instigated causing a blockage of Manila Bay for the pedestrian.

While this two-story building is only one structure and occupies much less space than the line-up of vendors' stalls that used to stand there and was fortunately removed by the Manila mayor that followed the vendor-friendly one, it is totally out of place not only for its usurpation of public space but for its function — a sewage treatment plant as it shockingly announces on its façade.