If you could change one important thing about your hometown, what would you change? Use reasons and specific examples to support your answer

If there were one thing I could change about my hometown it would be the shift from lackadaisical attitudes about zoning laws to strict adherence. I was convinced of this the day I looked up from my lawn and noticed a Gilbey’s Gin billboard, awash in the klieg lights, staring down at me.

Zoning laws exist. They were created because the idea that the purposeful and logical segregation of different sorts of establishments and residences could only lead to a better quality of life. The rationale, and therefore the adherence, is lost on city officials.

I have seen the intrusion of girlie bars, noisome and noisy factories, gasoline stations, and entire refineries smack into the heart of residential areas. Down in Pandacan, Manila, there are huge petroleum depots that squat cheek by jowl in some of the most densely populated areas of the city. Across the corner from my house in Taguig, a gym blares noise passed off as music over an otherwise quiet community. At the residential neighborhood where my sister’s house is located, the next street has a girlie bar where prostitutes ply their trade in the evenings.

It is clearly unfair that two sets of laws exist in my country. One set of firm and sensible ordinances for the posh, gated communities, and another set of highly flexible and indifferent ordinances for the rest of Manila. It appears that money, power, and influence are further requirements to enjoy quality of life, and those without have no claim to a decent life.