Killing Carbon

It was in December 2017 when I started work on my master’s thesis proposal on the design of sustainable and localized coworking spaces. My professor in the course “Research in Application of Cultural Elements in Design” suggested that for a truly localized experience of Cebu’s coworking culture, I should visit the city’s biggest and most authentic public market.

Lugging a DSLR camera, I went to the Carbon public market and observed the place for half a day. With that visual survey, I tried to anchor my thesis to the cultural elements of Cebu’s original “coworking space” --the public market. By capturing in photos the different facets of Carbon, I then came up with a visual narrative of the place as an indigenous form of coworking space. That narrative became part of a final report I submitted in class titled “Incorporating Cultural Elements in the Design of Localized Coworking Space.”

Part of the report stated: “Designers can draw some insights into the kind of user interaction that can take place in a given space and moment. Just like any city in the world, Cebu as a city evolved around a public market which served as its original civic center. Still vibrant to this day, Carbon Market is a showcase of local identity and should be the first stop of any observer wanting to have a glimpse of local urban life.

“The organization or “disorganization” of a space, the makeup and chaos of a place, portray a sensory character of the cultural elements working in there. The public market (likewise) serves as a hub from which money circulating in the urban economy is being trickled down to marginalized sectors of the economy, into fishing and farming communities, and into the countryside. A public market can be anything, depending on the culture and economic situation of the place. It can be a place where families live to survive from the crumbs of the economic activity.”

In one of the many photos I took, I described in the caption: “A young mother arranges her wares while her child sits on a makeshift floor.” In another, I wrote: “Vendor families reside along the sidewalk amid the backdrop of two-story buildings owned by middle men or suppliers.” Even middle-aged men huddled around a small table late in the afternoon with that delectable reddish-orange beverage didn’t escape my camera, captioned thus: “A hard day’s work is rewarded by a garapon of tuba, a popular local drink.”

“Traffic flow is dictated neither by any sense of urgency nor by standard rules. In Carbon Market, vehicles go with the flow in an unplanned road-sharing scheme with vendors, consumers, kargadors and trisikad drivers,” I wrote. “Amid the seeming chaos of Carbon Market is a certain kind of charm --people from all parts congregating in a busy hub of trade for livestock, produce and other best buys.”

This was over four years ago. Today, many of my middleclass friends are excited over the “modernization” of Carbon under a joint venture agreement between the city government and Megawide Construction. I, on the other hand, am saddened by what is happening in Carbon.

In the future I might have to advise tourists and friends who visit Cebu to skip in their itinerary the new Carbon market. If they want an authentic local Cebu street food or market experience, they can go to Siomai sa Tisa or the sidewalks of Osmeña Boulevard near Fuente. If they prefer a more upscale street food scene, there’s Sugbo Mercado in IT Park.

Of course, that authentic Cebu experience of Carbon is far from perfect. Many things should be improved in Carbon like the sanitary conditions and the design of the market. But that can be done without necessarily surrendering Carbon market to private hands in the guise of “modernizing” it. The current “modernization” of Carbon in the hands of a private entity is killing the Carbon I knew since childhood --a public market contoured to the cultural milieu of Cebu, where not just the masses but also the city’s carenderias and upscale restaurants source their spices, vegetables, meat, fish, and other goods in retail or wholesale.

Local vloggers are, as expected, fawning over the Carbon redevelopment. And they have many supporters in YouTube and social media. They are excited to experience the new, inauthentic Carbon market --unmindful of the economic insecurity and marginalization that typically come with socalled modernization projects in our country.