Meeting Report: Ricardo Barrera
Meeting Report: Ricardo Barrera
Location: Alcaldia de Mejicanos
Date: 27/04/09
Time: 9:00 – 10:00
Main topic: Future plans of Sector Montreal.
Present: Ricardo Barrera, Victor Perez, Pecco and Dieuwer
Two weeks ago Ricardo Barrera gave us some drawings of a future plan of Sector Montreal. This future plan contains networks, infrastructure and land use. To get to know the ideas behind the plans we arranged this meeting.
There are some problems while making a future plan in Sector Montreal. First, to plan public buildings or recreational areas the municipality needs to find and obtain unused land first. Next to the scarcity of unused land, which gives no freedom to implement any recreational, educational or economical space within the plan, it is often difficult to find the owner of the plot. In this situation the municipality starts to clean the land and wait till somebody comes to demand their property. [If so, the municipality tries to buy the land, if not they declare it as a public space and are able by law to develop it for communal use. The process is called ‘expropriacion’.] Second, the geographical layout of the area creates difficulties for connectivity and plan infrastructure. Third, there is no money. All the plans are still far form being constructed. The aim is to create a funding with help of NGO’s like Fundasal and Procomes. The future plan where we talk about is far from being realized. The plan of the land use is still just a proposition and nothing concrete. It gives the opportunity to have a critic look at some of the aspects. The infrastructural part of the plan only contains the main roads and intends to create a better connectivity. The passages are not included, which leaves out an important part of the risk reduction in the most vulnerable spots of the area. Because this plan contains the whole area of Sector Montreal it focuses on the scale of the urban area and not on the scale of a community. To reduce the social problems, especially in the north part of the Sector Montreal there is heavy gang activity, he wants to increase the social control by creating recreational areas and public buildings. All is limited of course by the unused spaces. To create more connectivity there is a new road planned. This road connects the main road of Sector Montreal to the mountain ridge on the west. The connection is made halfway, which improves the connectivity and create a better integration, but still to leaves the north part badly connected. It would be much more effective, in terms of creating social control, to make the connection in the north part; at the end of the community of Buenos Aires. Ricardo agrees, but explains that the possibility to create this road is cut of by the just constructed El Corintho; a big gated community housing project for the middle class. This is a prime example of the lack of urban planning. There is no integrated plan. Which is this example blocks, what might have been a big help to the social problems in Buenos Aires.
The gang activity in the north of Montreal is fed by the bad connectivity, but also by the connection that this area has with two other municipalities, not by using roads but by crossing fields to Cuscatancingo and Mariona. Victor explains how the gangs were pushed out of the community of Iberia, which was the headquarters for the ‘marreros’, by just the activity of creating infrastructure. The presence of the constructors and the activity around the construction made the ‘marreros’ move to Buenos Aires. It shows the importance of social control and activity of the public space.
Within the visits to Sector Montreal we had been told by a ‘law’, which enabled the municipality to construct and help at a private owned piece of land. This ‘law’ turns out to be a figurative law and is a regulation which is carried out by the municipality to prevent favoring individuals, in fear of getting accused for corruption.
One of the drawings shows a plan of all the existing black water plants and the new planned water plants. There is a little group of people that has a black water system, but the majority has dry tanks, a hole in the ground that serves as sanitation system. The problem with these holes is that there capacity is limited and it is dangerous to dig a second hole because of the risk for collapsing. There are already cases where people dump there black water illegally in the rivers, rivers wherein the women still washes the clothes. Clearly there is a desperate need for a sanitation system.
Location: Alcaldia de Mejicanos
Date: 27/04/09
Time: 9:00 – 10:00
Main topic: Future plans of Sector Montreal.
Present: Ricardo Barrera, Victor Perez, Pecco and Dieuwer
Two weeks ago Ricardo Barrera gave us some drawings of a future plan of Sector Montreal. This future plan contains networks, infrastructure and land use. To get to know the ideas behind the plans we arranged this meeting.
There are some problems while making a future plan in Sector Montreal. First, to plan public buildings or recreational areas the municipality needs to find and obtain unused land first. Next to the scarcity of unused land, which gives no freedom to implement any recreational, educational or economical space within the plan, it is often difficult to find the owner of the plot. In this situation the municipality starts to clean the land and wait till somebody comes to demand their property. [If so, the municipality tries to buy the land, if not they declare it as a public space and are able by law to develop it for communal use. The process is called ‘expropriacion’.] Second, the geographical layout of the area creates difficulties for connectivity and plan infrastructure. Third, there is no money. All the plans are still far form being constructed. The aim is to create a funding with help of NGO’s like Fundasal and Procomes. The future plan where we talk about is far from being realized. The plan of the land use is still just a proposition and nothing concrete. It gives the opportunity to have a critic look at some of the aspects. The infrastructural part of the plan only contains the main roads and intends to create a better connectivity. The passages are not included, which leaves out an important part of the risk reduction in the most vulnerable spots of the area. Because this plan contains the whole area of Sector Montreal it focuses on the scale of the urban area and not on the scale of a community. To reduce the social problems, especially in the north part of the Sector Montreal there is heavy gang activity, he wants to increase the social control by creating recreational areas and public buildings. All is limited of course by the unused spaces. To create more connectivity there is a new road planned. This road connects the main road of Sector Montreal to the mountain ridge on the west. The connection is made halfway, which improves the connectivity and create a better integration, but still to leaves the north part badly connected. It would be much more effective, in terms of creating social control, to make the connection in the north part; at the end of the community of Buenos Aires. Ricardo agrees, but explains that the possibility to create this road is cut of by the just constructed El Corintho; a big gated community housing project for the middle class. This is a prime example of the lack of urban planning. There is no integrated plan. Which is this example blocks, what might have been a big help to the social problems in Buenos Aires.
The gang activity in the north of Montreal is fed by the bad connectivity, but also by the connection that this area has with two other municipalities, not by using roads but by crossing fields to Cuscatancingo and Mariona. Victor explains how the gangs were pushed out of the community of Iberia, which was the headquarters for the ‘marreros’, by just the activity of creating infrastructure. The presence of the constructors and the activity around the construction made the ‘marreros’ move to Buenos Aires. It shows the importance of social control and activity of the public space.
Within the visits to Sector Montreal we had been told by a ‘law’, which enabled the municipality to construct and help at a private owned piece of land. This ‘law’ turns out to be a figurative law and is a regulation which is carried out by the municipality to prevent favoring individuals, in fear of getting accused for corruption.
One of the drawings shows a plan of all the existing black water plants and the new planned water plants. There is a little group of people that has a black water system, but the majority has dry tanks, a hole in the ground that serves as sanitation system. The problem with these holes is that there capacity is limited and it is dangerous to dig a second hole because of the risk for collapsing. There are already cases where people dump there black water illegally in the rivers, rivers wherein the women still washes the clothes. Clearly there is a desperate need for a sanitation system.
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