Colon Street

Colon Street is a crowded street in downtown Cebu City that is often called the oldest street in the Philippines. It is named after Christopher Columbus. It traces its origins to the town plan by Miguel Lopez de Legazpi, the Spanish conquistador who arrived in the Philippines to establish a colony in 1565.

Colon, a bit run-down now, was the site of fashionable shops, offices and movie houses. It was once the heart of Cebu City's shopping and business activity, but in recent years much of this activity has shifted inland to uptown areas.[1]

In 2006, the Cebu City Council proposed a plan to close parts of Colon street from vehicular traffic and convert it to a tourism zone. [2] However, this was met with much opposition from businessmen and motorists due to concerns regarding security and parking spaces.

Colon Street eyed as special tourism zone

By Doris C. Bongcac
Cebu Daily News First Posted 07:36:00 10/22/2006

A PROPOSAL to permanently close parts of historic Colon Street and its connecting roads to vehicular traffic so the closed areas can be converted into a tourism zone is being explored by the Cebu City Council.

Councilor Hilario Davide III said this would reduce vehicular traffic downtown and give sidewalk vendors a legitimate area to sell their goods without causing inconvenience to the public, who use the sidewalk.

“There has got to be a better way to address this nagging problem and, perhaps, one way to clear our sidewalks without necessarily depriving vendors of their livelihood is to transform or convert portions of Colon Street ad its connecting streets into an exclusive tourist zone or a promenade similar to those found in foreign cities,” he said.

The City Council last Wednesday asked the City Planning and Development Office and the City Traffic Operations Management (Citom) to conduct a feasibility study on the proposal.

The study will determine what streets may be closed for the purpose.

“(Having) an exclusive zone such as this will certainly attract local and foreign tourists and even residents of the city,” Davide said.

Sidewalk vendors from other parts of the city may also be drawn to the tourist zone.

“If this happens, then the city will have rid itself of these vendors who have for the longest time been dominating our sidewalks causing inconvenience to the public,” Davide said.

Earlier, the city government imposed one-way traffic in Colon Street but local business complained that it was hurting their enterprises.

The street was again converted to two-way traffic in 2004 while some jeepnyes were re-routed to other streets to decongest Colon

Colon Street has the distinction of being the oldest street in the country.