ELYSPLANET

Escolta Is Rotting on Purpose. Almost Nobody’s Fighting It.

The heat hits you first. Diesel smoke, damp concrete, and the low, heavy hum of a city moving too fast. Step off the LRT-1 — the Light Rail Transit Line 1, the elevated train that’s been cutting through this part of Manila since the 1980s — at Carriedo, and the crowd swallows you whole. This line alone moves several hundred thousand riders across the...