More a Park than a Mall

I wonder if those that have set up shop at the Bonifacio Hi-Street at the Fort Bonifacio Complex are making money.

I wonder because my family goes there not to buy stuff, but to have our daughter play in a semblance of a park , without the fear of getting held up by unsavory characters.


To us and I suspect, to most of those who go there, Bonifacio Hi-street is a high-end public park. High-end because you have to have some sort of transportation to get there, practically all the shops carry branded and expensive stuff, the place is littered with coffee joints – which isn’t a basic, and the cheapest eating place is Brother’s Burger which isn’t light on the pocket – if you compare it to McDo or Jollibee.

One thing that’s really working for the place is the interactive sculptures. There’s this interesting-looking green stuff that looks like vines sprouting from the ground. To me, it’s a better version of the old tin cans connected by a string that served as a play telephone when we were kids. Because that’s exactly what happens. Talk into one end and someone else hears what you’re saying on the other end as clearly as if you’re next to each other.

I don’t know if the artist had intended for his telephone lines to serve as a playground, because the kids try to mount the vines and climb as far as they can without falling off. And it’s not just the kids. Teenagers gather around these sculptures, just talking and sitting on the grass.

Families stand around with the kids in strollers and the rest running around with their yayas. And the dogs. Some of them look more well-groomed than their owners. And some of their feet, este paws, do not even touch the ground. They are carried around in big bags. Would you see this at the Quezon City circle? Not in these numbers, no.

So, I wonder. With so many people outside the shops than in them, how long can this well-maintained public park last? For the sake of my daughter, I hold my breath. And when we can, we eat in one of the restaurants to pay our dues.