Rizal Avenue

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:
 * Monumento
 * 5th Avenue
 * R. Papa
 * Abad Santos
 * Blumentritt
 * Tayuman
 * Bambang
 * Doroteo Jose
 * Carriedo

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
The Avenida Rizal was created by Manila city ordinance in 1911 from two parallel streets – 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, Manila.

Once planned to terminate at the Manila Chinese Cemetery at the north, the road was lengthened in the next two decades all the way up to Caloocan, then a municipality of Rizal province, and the then-new monument honoring Andres Bonifacio now known as Monumento. 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). 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. It became the city'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. Its section between Calle Carriedo and Calle Blumentritt was also one of the routes of tranvia until 1945.

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. In the early 1980s, the construction of the LRT Line 1 viaduct traversing along the avenue took place, and operations commenced in 1985.

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. 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. Initially intended to be temporary, the pedestrianization of Rizal Avenue was completed in 2003 but persisted until 2008. 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.

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. Since the cost of the tiles for the pedestrianization was about ₱40 2007 each, the tiles had been carefully removed for it to be used in future projects. On July 17, 2007, Lim attended the ceremony reopening the closed portion of Rizal Avenue, and it has remained open to this day.

On September 15, 2016, Manila Mayor Joseph Estrada declared a parking ban on the avenue's stretch in the city. 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.

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.