One of the things God found out while he was creating the Universe, is that man can not leave alone. Adam felt so sad and lonely, God decided to provide him company and created Eve. They lived happy for a while enjoying the benefits of Eden, until the snake came along and screwed things up. But that’s another story I won’t get involved today.
The human being is a gregarious creature. He enjoys being with others of his own species. Aristotle, a disciple of Plato, defined the human species as “Zoon politikon”, meaning a city beast. Hence political beast. Human evolution was not meant for the faint at heart. It took a strong aggressive beast to rise from the jungle all the way to the moon.
This aggressive beast enjoys the company of others. Just watch him how happy he feels at baseball games, soccer games, boxing matches, at Super Bowl games and so forth. Having so many people around hims, makes him feel like a million bucks. Cities grows because we like to live near other people, exchange our ideas with them, our ideals and our projects. We go out on picnics, field days, join social clubs, participate in zillion of social events and communicate with the rest of the world intensely. That’s why there is such an explosive growth in social software like Tweeter, Bebo, Friendster, MySpace, Facebook, and Flock social browser, just to name a few.
An active former Mayoress of Panama City, Mayín Correa, knew about this social characteristic of man, and decided to create a commercial area with no cars. She transformed the Central Avenue—which was full of traffic—into a pedestrian street. It was called, La Peatonal. The change and acceptance was not very popular during the initial months, until they started to walk aimlessly through the street without being afraid of being hit by a speeding car. And they liked it!
They fed the pigeons, the kids licked cool ice cream cones, they shopped till they dropped at local stores, they took photographs of each other, they held hands and courted, they chatted and chatted for hours, they watched the multicolor clothes of the street walkers, they sat in groups, they heard all kind of stories of talkative street vendors. In a nutshell: they enjoyed rubbing against each other. It was a warm feeling. It felt so good.
I was recently there at La Peatonal one late afternoon and felt the enchantment of the area. I was there on purpose. I wanted to capture the experience with my camera and share it with you.
The purpose of these images is to capture the feeling of enjoying the companionship of other people walking freely through the pedestrian street, not to delight or decorate. Having said that, this is what I saw. Here we go.
This is the entrance to the Pedestrian Street. It reads, "The Mayoress of Panama delivers the Pedestrian Street to the community. Thereby consolidating and safeguarding the citizens' rights and architectural values of our country. Mayoress Mayin Correa 1993." (Credit: Omar Upegui R./Michael Moore)
A long shot of La Peatonal with its red bricks and multi-colored stores on both sides of the street. (Credit: Omar Upegui R./Michael Moore)
A few pedestrians walking up and down the street and talking to each other. (Credit: Omar Upegui R./Michael Moore)
Photo of a group of friends sitting on a circular bench, relaxing and enjoying the experience of being together. (Credit: Omar Upegui R./Michael Moore)
A group of people around a talkative street vendor selling sexual energy drinks. (Credit: Omar Upegui R./Michael Moore)
The loquacious street peddler posing for the camera with her paraphernalia on the ground. (Credit: Omar Upegui R./Michael Moore)
A man leisurely walks through the street. Notice the number of persons on the back enjoying the experience of relaxing on a late Sunday afternoon. (Credit: Omar Upegui R./Michael Moore)
A long shot of La Peatonal depicting a family enjoying a walk on the street. (Credit: Omar Upegui R./Michael Moore)
If you are in Panama City and want to get rid of your stress, just drop over to La Peatonal and experience the unique feeling of enjoying the presence of other people relaxing and having fun. It can’t get any better than that. Viva la gente! Good Day.
