Our Childhood is Further Eviscerated.

I remember buying comic books in the dingy Greenhills Arcade, then later in Shoppesville. I remember going with my family to buy our PCs and software (i.e. GAMES!!!) in holes in the wall in Virra Mall. I remember ogling really cool Macross, Gundam and Transformer toys (you know...before they were declared antique collectibles) and diecast cars. Recently (i.e., within the new millenium) Virra Mall got a facelift and the Greenhills complex got a brand new building with the Promenade.

Apparently, though, it doesn't end there.

In the last two years I've revisited my childhood, in a manner of speaking; I've taken to collecting diecast toy cars of varying scales and detail levels, and most of the places that offer decent prices and the models I like are found in Greenhills. I'd been going there for a year and a half and it was yesterday that I found, to my shock, the staff one of my favorite merchants had packed all of the 1/43 scale cars that had once lined their store windows. To my shock I asked what was going on, and they told me they were leaving because the owners had raised their rent by P10,000.00, effective Monday. Not just one, but two of my favorite diecast car stores based in Shoppesville's "Blue Lane," along with a slew of other collectable toy retailers, were going out of business due to the ridiculous rates.

I basically went "sobbing" to the diecast car forum to which I belong, telling them the terrible news, and in the replies that ensued, someone shed light on what was going on, and what the grand plan of the Ortigas Group is.

Apparently, Shoppesville, Uni Mart and Theater Mall are all set to undergo major renovation with the intent of making the Greenhills Shopping Center the next SM or Robinson's, or, more ambitiously, perhaps the next Greenbelt. This sounds rather grand, but there's just one problem that I can see with that.

One goes to SM or Robinson's (and to a lesser extent Eastwood and Gateway) to cool down, have lunch or dinner or watch a movie. One goes to Greenbelt to do the same things, more or less, but to be seen and to look ridiculously affluent in the process.

When one wants to actually BUY something, and not be caught in sweltering heat, as one would in Divisoria, the destination of choice has, for YEARS now, been Greenhills, which is known to be the place to find great, CHEAP stuff.

With this planned renovation, which is reputedly set to be a multibillion peso project, the rents of the tenants are destined to go through the roof, and so they're not likely to be at all friendly with their pricing after that.

Greenhills, with the demolition of Goldcrest, and other similar shopping destinations around the metropolis, remained one of the few malls left with any real character. It isn't a total shithole like Harrison Plaza but it is certainly a lot more interesting, with its nooks and crannies, than a boring old SM or Robinson's. Even after Virra Mall was renovated there were still a lot of places to look for good bargains on all kinds of stuff, like Shoppesville and the teeming tiangge. It's worth pointing out that even with this setup, Greenhills attracts tons of people; parking there is quite often difficult unless one does it very early in the morning, and the human traffic even on weekdays is quite considerable.

I don't know why the Ortigas Group thinks they're trading up; if their ambition is to be the next Greenbelt, they should ask themselves how often they see people actually BUYING anything from the stores there. They may be the savvy businesspersons while I'm the working stiff, but in my humble opinion they run the real risk of killing the flock of geese laying golden eggs.

My beloved die cast car stores are safe for now; after the shocking news I heard yesterday apparently building admin backpedaled and said they could stay at the old rates until December.

Essentially, then, we have the rest of the year to enjoy the Greenhills we've known and loved for all of our lives. After that, well it's a whole new world, and I'm not at all sure that's a good thing.