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June 26, 2009
End of the Week
This week I essentially put together all the information from last week's Moravia meetings and tried to identify solutions to specific problems.
The Edith situation continues to be a concern. She calls me almost every day asking for a solution to her living situation. Obviously, as I am new and have very little information, I repeatedly tell her that I am waiting for the Moravia people to take care of the problem. The Moravia office is an absolute mess: it has about 10 computers, 12 phones and 20 desks for the 30 people working on the project. It is entirely understandable that, given their limited resources and dozens of pressing concerns, they have been unable to visit Edith.
At my office, we are also trying to solve the serious social problems plaguing the housing projects in the hills of Pajarito, which now house thousands of people. Already, these areas are affected by crime, conflict between neighbors, waste disposal issues and general chaos and confusion. When people discovered that some residents were paying more than others for utilities, many started refusing to pay. The delicate social fabric of these new neighborhoods seems to be disintegrating. It seems that next week I will have to go toPajarito to prepare a report on the issues, which will hopefully put more pressure on the appropriate agencies to address these problems.
Indeed, housing is one of the current mayor's most important initiatives as a personal commitment of his, a major campaign promise, and one of the largest and most expensive campaigns underway. It is crucial that public housing remains livable, presentable and attractive to potential residents.
Directly below a separate housing project located in Moravia itself, the city created dozens of spaces for commercial establishments. The idea was that residents of the public housing projects would have clean, safe spaces for economic activity that would hopefully reinvigorate the local economy. For weeks, these spaces were empty and without clear owners due to abandonment, confusion and bureaucratic inefficiency. That was, to some extent, expected.
The problem, however, is that without proper monitoring, these spaces were essentially torn apart. Glass windows and doors, metal frames and shelves, and pretty much everything else were stolen from these commercial spaces. Now they are nothing but empty concrete rooms. I am trying to identify the appropriate agency to make these spaces usable again and get them to their intended owners quickly. This process also requires plenty of money and I have no idea where I am supposed to find it.
Another problem has emerged at the new daycare center in Moravia. One of the Moravia project's most presentable achievements, the daycare center nonetheless has recently been criticized byBuen Comienzo, the city's early childhood initiative and the daycare center's administrators.
Buen Comienzo says that the daycare center has only classrooms and activity rooms, but no real public space for the young children. Consequently, as more local families have sent their kids to the daycare center, overcrowding has led to fights and restlessness.
Another problem is the fact that the spaces designed for the youngest kids are on the second floor. While I think this was done for safety reason, this has made it very difficult for the center's employees to keep track of all the children, as they have to physically carry them to the second floor one child at a time, leaving the others downstairs.
The proposed solution is an expansion of the daycare center, which will be a nightmare to coordinate. This requires purchasing nearby houses, relocating the owners of those houses, designing the new space with the help ofBuen Comienzo , etc, etc, etc. As I have explained in previous posts, the purchase and relocation process alone is an ordeal that in other cases has lasted months and cost the city plenty of money.
Stress is building in my office because plenty of similar problems are, to varying degrees, plaguing nearly every project. This is by no means unusual in Medellin or, for that matter, any other city with an honest and ambitious administration. Indeed, at the office it is almost normal to be stressed out and angry at another agency for some sort of delay or mistake. Fortunately, however, the weather is quickly improving and, this afternoon, everyone will leave for a third consecutive long weekend.
Posted by Pablo Rojas at June 26, 2009 12:46 PM
