My sister had an appointment in the Katipunan area today. She dragged
me along because she wanted to do a market study of the billboard ads
along the route, so I took pictures and videos while she drove. She
warned me in advance that I'd have to wait for about an hour. I agreed
anyway, knowing that it would give me time to reacquaint myself with
the area around my university.

The ill-considered and inconvenient Metro Manila Development Authority
(MMDA) anti-pedestrian fences were still there, cutting off access to
Ateneo de Manila University. Not relishing the idea of a long walk to
the pedestrian overpass in the noon sun, I decided to wander around
the area near KFC.

A striking addition to the landscape is My Place,
an upscale high-rise dormitory with full amenities, which I plan to write about later.
Parts of it are still being finished, but I heard that there are already over a dozen tenants.

Eyrie is no more. I had planned to eat lunch there, remembering the
kind, pudgy proprietor who was familiar enough with us to mock-scold
me one time for being late for a dinner appointment. I loved meeting
people there for good food at reasonable prices, chatting over baked
macaroni or that wonderful vegetarian pasta with portabello mushrooms.
Alas, it joined Martha's Kitchen as yet another victim of progress—or
regress, considering the MMDA obstruction is probably to blame for all
of this.

The building that used to house Eyrie, The Filipino Bookstore, and the
Ti Breizh cafe has fallen into the shadow of Blueskies, an Internet
cafe and gaming arena formerly limited to the second and third floor
above the corner flower shop. Internet cafes stretch from edge of
Katipunan to the empty lot before Eagle Star Condominum.

Even the tutorial center at the corner near Tapa King has repurposed
most of its space into an Internet cafe and video editing workspace.
The only remnants of its past: a few stools, a narrow study area and
some posters advertising a 50-hour tutoring package for math, English
and abstract reasoning. Such a stark contrast from the quiet, spacious
place I remember peeking into before. How you can create a conducive
study environment crammed in between computer tables is beyond my
imagination.

Well, that's the changing face of Katipunan for you. The MMDA
pedestrian barrier, much cursed by people on both sides of the divide,
choked the casual lunch and dinner-with-school-friends crowd. Good
food isn't enough to make people walk, but gaming works. Go figure.

I have no idea how KFC survives, but then again, it's KFC.

Update: Allan adds:

The ones who owned the tutorial center beside tapaking
also own the computer shop. Their tutorial center (i forgot the name)
has moved above rustans beside pc express