Rizal Avenue

Rizal Avenue
; R-9
Avenida; Avenida Rizal
	Rizal Avenue looking south from Lope de Vega Street intersection in Santa Cruz, Manila
Former name(s)	Manila North Road
Part of	R-9 R-9; N150;
Namesake	José Rizal
Length	6.5 km (4.0 mi)
North end	AH 26 (N1) (Bonifacio Monument Circle) in Caloocan
Major; junctions	N130 (5th Avenue); N151 (Abad Santos Avenue); N160 (Blumentritt Road); N140 (Tayuman Street); N145 (Recto Avenue);
South end	N150 (Carriedo Street) in Santa Cruz and Quiapo, Manila

Rizal Avenue, also known as Avenida Rizal or simply Avenida, is one of Manila's main thoroughfares running with two to six lanes from its Santa Cruz and Quiapo districts to the Bonifacio Monument (Monumento) Circle in Caloocan. Named after the national hero José Rizal, it is a part of Radial Road 9 (R-9). The LRT Line 1 elevated railroad is built above the street in its entire length, and several jeepneys ply the area taking passengers from Caloocan, Quezon City, and Valenzuela. Most of the street is within Santa Cruz, Manila. The avenue forms part of National Route 150 (N150) of the Philippine highway network.

Contemporary landmarks

At the northern end of the avenue is the Bonifacio Monument roundabout. Vehicles coming from Rizal Avenue's northbound carriageway can turn right into EDSA (Circumferential Road 4); its northern logical extension would be the MacArthur Highway (Manila North Road; continuation of Radial Road 9), which leads all the way to Aparri, Cagayan. Vehicles from Samson Road (EDSA's logical western extension) enter the avenue to its southbound carriageway.

The avenue also provides access to the entrance and exit gates of the Manila Chinese Cemetery. The San Lazaro Compound (which hosts the San Lazaro Hospital, the Jose R. Reyes Memorial Medical Center and the Department of Health) and the Archdiocesan Shrine of Espiritu Santo are the other landmarks along the avenue.

Shopping malls found along the Avenue are SM City Grand Central, DiviMall Monumento, North Mall, Tayuman Center Mall, Odeon Terminal Mall, Emerald Circle Avenida, Good Earth Plaza, and Isetann Carriedo. In front of Isetann is Plaza Lacson. One passing through Plaza Lacson ends up in MacArthur Bridge, then to Taft Avenue (Radial Road 2). Eastbound takes one to Quiapo Church, although this part of the street has been pedestrianized.

Train stations along Rizal Avenue

Nine LRTA Line 1 stations are located at Rizal Avenue as its main landmarks. They are, from north to south:

In addition, the LRTA Line 2 system crosses the avenue at Recto Avenue, and the Recto station is a short walk away from the avenue. The Philippine National Railways also crosses Rizal Avenue Extension, with Blumentritt railway station also a short walk away.

History

Avenida Rizal was created by Manila city ordinance in 1911 from two parallel streets in the city – Calle Dulumbayan (from Tagalog dulo ng bayan, meaning "the edge of town", and the area of the same name) and Calle Salcedo. It also occupied the old Calle Cervantes, Calzada de San Lazaro, and Camino á Gagalaḡin in Santa Cruz.^[1]^[2]

Once planned to terminate at the Manila Chinese Cemetery at the north,^[3] the road was lengthened in the next two decades all the way up to the adjacent then-municipality of Caloocan, then part of Rizal province, where the then-new monument honoring Andres Bonifacio, now known as Monumento, is located. The extension was originally referred to as Manuguit Extension and Rizal Avenue Extension's name had also reached further north up to Polo, Bulacan (now Valenzuela, Metro Manila).^[4] The avenue was designated as Route 3A and a part of Manila North Road (Highway 3 or Route 3) that connects Manila to northern Luzon.^[5]^[6] It became the Manila's longest street during that time. Prior to and right after World War II, the avenue was center of the city's social life, with the street lined with shops, restaurants and movie theaters. The theaters were designed by the prominent architects of the day, many of whom would become National Artists.^[7]^[8] Its section between Calle Carriedo and Calle Blumentritt was also one of the routes of tranvia until 1945.^[9]

Two National Artists for architecture, Pablo Antonio and Juan Nakpil, created several of the movie theaters along the avenue. Antonio designed the Galaxy, the Ideal, the Scala and the Lyric theaters, while Nakpil designed the Capitol, the Ever and the Avenue theaters. As the years went by, the area was victimized by urban renewal.

By the 1960s, economic activities shifted from the downtown area of Manila to Makati. The exodus of business and the rich residents from Manila to the suburbs coupled by the increase in low skilled rural migrants looking for work opportunities led to the deterioration of the old business districts, including Rizal Avenue. The construction of LRTA Line 1 system in the 1980s, which required the closure of Rizal Avenue to vehicular traffic, essentially killed business along the route. The cinemas themselves resorted to showing double feature B-movies and soft porn, as people transferred to the newer and more modern Ortigas Center and the Ayala Center.^[7] In the early 1980s, the construction of the LRT Line 1 viaduct traversing along the avenue took place, and operations commenced in 1985.^[10]

In 2000, during the term of Manila Mayor Lito Atienza, the stretch from Recto Avenue to Palanca Street was transformed into a pedestrian-only area by paving the road with bricks as part of an urban renewal project. This led to a rerouting of vehicular traffic to secondary roads like Tomas Mapua and Doroteo Jose Streets.^[7]^[11] The project included painting the buildings and the LRT Line 1 system. The Ideal Theater was previously demolished, and the Galaxy, Scala, and Lyric theaters were already misused. The lower level of the Ever Theater was converted into stalls, while the upper levels were abandoned. Only the refurbished Capitol Theater remained until its demolition in 2020.^[7] Initially intended to be temporary, the pedestrianization of Rizal Avenue was completed in 2003 but persisted until 2008.^[11]^[12] The Avenue Theater, which survived the Battle of Manila of 1945, was demolished in 2006 to give way to a parking area. The costs of maintaining the facility were too high, as compared for it to be converted as a parking area. The National Historical Institute (NHI) and several private entities tried to prevent the building from being torn down.^[7]

One of Manila Mayor Alfredo Lim's first decisions after winning the elections of 2007 was to reopen the pedestrian-only section of Rizal Avenue, which has elicited complaints from shopkeepers due to decreased traffic of people, and from commuters which caused traffic jams on secondary streets.^[12] Since the cost of the tiles for the pedestrianization was about ₱40 (equivalent to ₱65.11 in 2021) each, the tiles had been carefully removed for it to be used in future projects.^[11] On July 17, 2007, Lim attended the ceremony reopening the closed portion of Rizal Avenue, and it has remained open to this day.^[12]

On September 15, 2016, Manila Mayor Joseph Estrada declared a parking ban on the avenue's stretch in the city.^[13] During the term of his successor Isko Moreno, such stretch was also lighted up with new street lights from 2021 to 2022 as part of the city's street lighting program.^[14]^[15]^[16]

Intersections

Province	km	mi	Destinations	Notes
Caloocan	9	5.6	AH 26 (N1) (EDSA) / N1 (MacArthur Highway) / AH 26 (N120) (Samson Road)	Bonifacio Monument Circle (Monumento). Northern terminus. Continues northward as MacArthur Highway.
			L. Bustamante Street	Northbound only.
			12th Avenue	Southbound only.
			11th Avenue	Closed Intersection.
			10th Avenue	Traffic light intersection.
			9th Avenue	Intersection indefinitely closed. Unsignaled intersection.
			8th Avenue	Intersection indefinitely closed. Unsignaled intersection.
	8	5.0	7th Avenue	Traffic light intersection.
			6th Avenue	Unsignaled intersection.
			N130 (5th Avenue)	Traffic light intersection. Westbound goes to R-10, eastbound goes to Quezon City.
			4th Avenue	Intersection indefinitely closed. Traffic light intersection turned off.
			3rd Avenue	Unsignaled intersection.
			2nd Avenue	Unsignaled intersection.
			1st Avenue	Southbound only.
Manila			Ricardo Papa Street	Traffic light intersection. Southbound only.
			Tabora Street	Southbound only.
			N151 (Abad Santos Avenue), Hermosa Street	Traffic light intersection. Southwest direction goes to Divisoria.
			Mt. Samat Street	Southbound only.
			Samal Street	Southbound only.
	6	3.7	Aurora Boulevard	Traffic light intersection. Access to La Loma and Sampaloc districts.
			Pampanga Street	Traffic light intersection.
			Bulacan Street	Northbound only.
			Sampaguita Street	Northbound only.
			Lico Street, Cavite Street	Traffic Light intersection.
			N160 (Blumentritt Road), Antipolo Street, Old Antipolo Street	Formerly signaled intersection. Northeast direction goes to Aurora Boulevard and Dimasalang Street.
			Laguna Street	Traffic light intersection.
			A. Lorenzo Jr. Street (Batangas Street)	Traffic light intersection.
			Yuseco Street	Traffic light intersection.
	5	3.1	Herrera Street	Unsignaled intersection.
			N140 (Tayuman Street)	Traffic light intersection. Westbound goes to R-10, while eastbound goes to Lacson Avenue.
			Malabon Street	Unsignaled intersection.
			San Lazaro Street	One-way intersection.
	4	2.5	Quiricada Street	Traffic light intersection.
			Alvarez Street	Unsignaled intersection.
			Bambang Street	Traffic light intersection.
	4	2.5	Remigio Street	Traffic light intersection.
	4	2.5	Mayhaligue Street	Unsignaled intersection.
			Fugoso Street	Traffic light intersection.
			Lope de Vega Street	Unsignaled intersection.
	3	1.9	Doroteo Jose Street	Formerly signaled intersection.
	3	1.9	N145 (Claro M. Recto Avenue)	Traffic light intersection. Westbound goes to Divisoria and R-10, while eastbound goes to Sampaloc, San Miguel and Santa Mesa districts.
			Soler Street	Unsignaled intersection.
			Katubusan Street	Southbound only.
			Gonzalo Puyat Street	Unsignaled intersection.
			N150 (Ronquillo Street)	One-way road from Rizal Avenue. All southbound vehicles of Rizal Avenue are diverted to this road.
			Bustos Street	One-way road to Rizal Avenue.
	2	1.2	N150 (Carriedo Street)	Southern terminus.
1.000 mi = 1.609 km; 1.000 km = 0.621 mi Incomplete access

Other roads named after Rizal

"Rizal Avenue" and its variations thereof such as "Rizal Street" are one of the most common street names in the Philippines. It usually serves as the main street of a town or city, and in cases towns and cities in the Luzon mainland, the street that leads to Manila is "Rizal Street". J.P. Rizal Avenue in Makati, Rizal Avenue in Olongapo, and some segments part of the Pan-Philippine Highway are some of such streets.

References

^ de Gamoneda, Francisco J. (1898). Plano de Manila y sus Arrables [Map of Manila and its suburbs] (Map). 1:10,000 (in Spanish). Retrieved March 27, 2022.
^ Map of the City of Manila and Vicinity (Map). 1:11000. Office of Chief Engineers, Division of the Philippines. November 12, 1901. Retrieved March 27, 2022.
^ Map of city of Manila and vicinity (Map). 1:10560. Manila?: Office of Dept. Engineer, Phil. Dept. June 1915. Retrieved June 9, 2024.
^ Manila, Philippines map (Map). American Red Cross Service Bureau. August 1945. Retrieved April 25, 2021.
^ "Aerial view to the southwest overlooking Grace Park Airfield in northern Manila bordering Manila Bay". Pacific Wrecks. Retrieved July 4, 2021.
^ Executive Order No. 483 (November 6, 1951), Establishing the Classification of Roads, retrieved September 26, 2021
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e Alcazaren, Paulo (March 5, 2005). "Manila's Broadway". The Philippine Star. Archived from the original on January 31, 2013. Retrieved March 25, 2012.
^ Jalbuena, Katice (June 4, 2006). "Rizal Avenue landmark gone". The Manila Times. Yehey.com. Retrieved January 20, 2009.^{[dead link]}
^ Bach, John (1920). City of Manila, Philippine Islands (Map). 1:11,000. Retrieved June 13, 2022.
^ "Railway Operations". Light Rail Transit Authority. Retrieved June 13, 2024.
^ ^a ^b ^c Lopez, Allison (July 2, 2007). "Lim reopens Rizal Avenue, forest park". The Philippine Daily Inquirer. Archived from the original on September 14, 2007. Retrieved January 20, 2009.
^ ^a ^b ^c Lopez, Allison (July 17, 2007). "Rizal Avenue old-timers welcome reopening". The Philippine Daily Inquirer. Archived from the original on September 14, 2007. Retrieved January 20, 2009.
^ Araneta, Sandy (September 17, 2016). "Parking banned on Rizal Avenue". Manila Standard.
^ "LOOK: Manila Mayor Francisco 'Isko Moreno' Domagoso led the lighting of Hermosa-Abad Santos intersection and along Rizal Avenue going to R. Papa". City of Manila Local Government. September 1, 2021. Retrieved June 1, 2023.
^ Garcia, Leandre (September 8, 2021). "Look: Rizal Avenue corner LRT-1 Blumentritt Station is now well-lit". TopGear Philippines. Retrieved June 1, 2023.
^ Lamozara, Prim (August 17, 2020). "Manila street lighting program to make city safer and more convenient". Zigwheels. Retrieved June 1, 2023.