Slum clearance

This happens every couple of months...luckily the only casualties were some pigs...

The official "cause" is a candle...the neighbors complain it was due to shabu addicts...

But often the "cause" is a landlord who sees this as a easy way to clear his land...

Open lots are prone to be used for all sorts of things. We used to have goats and caribou grazing across the street (now traffic is too heavy, and few vacant lots are left to make the risk worthwhile). But we still have garbage left and then burned in the lot across the street. And in the lot between our house and the large new supermarket we now have a man who has a shanty built from scrap wood. We see him washing in the morning....he's fairly young, so I suspect he's an outsider looking for work, and has no local family. No theft yet from our house...

After Mt Pinatubo we had a lot of this, but these people have been resettled.

However, with "globalization" and with our town now officially a "city", our provincial town is slowly changing...

Maybe we'll move to the farm if it gets worse...On the other hand, we have Jollibee nearby, a "supermarket" and the old outside market within walking distance, we have a park to jog in and for nightime parties two blocks down, and the old town hall across the street is being made into a hospital...