Reflection

Today the group visited the Metropolitan Lima City Hall. It is an elegant structure with Italian marble stairs and European sculptures. It dates from the 1930s and was the last palace built in Lima downtown. We were directed to the Council's room where the Vice-Mayor welcomed us, and the Manager of Infrastructure and Development gave the group a PowerPoint presentation on this municipal administration’s accomplishments. (To see the themes of her lecture, check this website: http://www.munlima.gob.pe/obras.asp?pagina=2).

We learned first hand Mayor Castañeda’s official version of urban development.
In the afternoon the group was visited by architect Manuel Zubiate. Mr. Zubiate is the Director of Urbia, the Andean Corporation of Urbanism and a Lecturer at Oxford University. He is the author of the Costa Verde's Master Plan (Costa Verde is Lima's 17 km. coastline) and directed the redesign of Guayaquil's harbor, a postmodern project of urban renewal in Ecuador. http://www.malecon2000.com/fundacionmalecon2000/historia.asp

Mr. Zubiate is not an academician but an acting architect. He discussed his project of subsidies in housing ("Techo Propio") aimed at new building projects in shantytowns (2005), and his current experience designing a shopping area in Northern Lima--a successful shantytown that is fast turning into a "formal" section of town. Zubiate explained that this area’s marketing projections were inaccurate since many successful dwellers are choosing to move back to the "formal" city, even if it entailed living in smaller and more modest quarters. He attributed this new phenomenon to the crisis of the transportation system in the city. By then I noticed that the audience was getting frustrated. Here comes this famous guy talking about a million things, all problematic but unable to actually tell us the bottom line. Students began asking questions—shooting in all directions, why not? And Zubiate was smiling and giving brief polite answers. At some point he said to the audience: "See, there is something I did not tell you..." And then he moved on to explain a bottom line Third World fact: The city does not really have a lot of money. Actually, it has a very small purse, and the only thing that minicipal technocrats can do is a little bit of this here and a little bit of that there. In frustration I asked: "So, you are basically saying that what the current Mayor is doing is just fine: A fountain here, a park there, and a bridge back here." “Yes,” he answered, always smiling. "Actually," he said, "what I am saying is that this city’s Mayor, any Mayor, has very little resources and because of that, s/he has to use these monies intelligently. And, the current Mayor is not doing that." This was a break in his winding talk; he suddenly moved to show us a few urban development mistakes done by sloppy or poorly prepared technocrats. In the end inefficiency is the daughter of corruption and nepotism. But… isn’t he walking us into his apolitical view of the world?
New professionals, such as Zubiate, are approaching urban renewal lately as targeting specific nods in the urban network, which like acupuncture needles in a sick body, will create a neuralgic reaction that might cure the system. This way of thinking among urban designers avoids huge programs and focuses in developing perfect partial projects instead, in the hope to have a systemic reaction. Or perhaps they just settle for a beautiful creative product that could invite others to create similar others and in the process trigger a snowball effect.
If we want to give this approach a chance, we could begin by accepting the awful truth: big plans have not worked in Latin American cities. They require a great deal of political stability and lots of money. We have neither. Thus, let’s recognize the pragmatism of this viewpoint.
On the other hand, I cannot help to wonder what happens to those left behind by both corrupt/inept Mayors and honest/efficient urban experts like to Zubiate. How about urban renewal from the bottom up? I dare to think. How about asking urban residents what kind of city they would like to inhabit, and then (and only then) call the architects and have them materialize the people’s projects? Wouldn’t this ensure a bit more continuity in urban projects?

Dr Celle: PHD Sociology: OLLAS Service Learning Staff