Teresa Margarita Londoño Zurek
Economics
MAA1
December 9, 2014
Cartagena a City of Growth, Expansion and Progress
“Colombia”, what’s the first image that comes to you head? In the 80´s it was possibly drugs, bombs, danger and corruption, now we are in times of change and growth. We are the third country in Latin America with a growing economy of 4.9, we passed to quarter finals on the Fifa world cup 2014, we have a unique world treasure; Amazonas, we have Sofia Vergara, James Rodriguez, Shakira, we have a rate of investment so high in the past three years that we have become the second country of America in this position, and finally we have a beautiful city that represents our roots and foundation; Cartagena de Indias. This magical place has become a “must” in travellers that visit our continent in search of history, pleasure and tourism. Our ethnic composition is the result of the fusion of three main races: the pre-Columbian or native aborigines known as the Calamari, the whites, conquerors from Spain and the black brought as slaves from Africa. The combination of these races has resulted predominantly in a mulatto, mestizo, and black population.
Cartagena de Indias is located in the Caribbean Sea, it’s in the upper part of our countries costal line. It was founded on June 1, 1533; we were called after Cartagena, Spain. We had two mayor and important periods; colony and republican, during most of this time we were ruled by Spanish government and it was a center of political and economic activity due to the presence of royalty and wealthy viceroys. We became one of the most important ports of America and also the most target one by pirates, fortress and walls were built to protect our city and today they have become a UNESCO World Heritage Sites.
Right now were are a city of colours, culture, pleasures, fine dinning, luxury hotels, amazing islands, top cruise port in Latin America, growing economy, but were is our working people? Who do they live? What are there standards of life? Are they growing at the rate our economy is? Infrastructure, schools, hospitals, green spaces, recreation, houses, natural environments who’s taking in account all these factors? We are living on a bubble of upper class people that come to Cartagena to enjoy our city center but do not leave from these spectacular places. We have to analyse and take in consideration the real Cartagena our total amount of 1 million habitants, and offer them a better city, a place of opportunities.
First of all we have to understand our geography, Cartagena faces the Caribbean Sea to the west. To the south is the Cartagena Bay, which has two entrances: Bocachica (Small Mouth) in the south, and Bocagrande (Big Mouth) in the north. The old colonial walled city and fortress are located on a peninsula and the island of Getsemaní. The city has spread over the islands of Manga and Manzanillo, and on the mainland. As you can observe in the map the city is surrounded by water, so much that we could have been developed like Venice, Italy. We have a mayor problem and it is the water contamination in our canals and lakes. 100 years ago our main water dump area was the Cienaga de la Virgen, and the bay they both connects to the sea by some main canals, and these way it was always in a flowing system. The city started growing, the lake got totally contaminated and almost all of the natural system died, the canal that connected with the Caribbean closed and the lake became the worst part of our city. Our bay in the other hand was not that worst, fortunately the government decided not to keep on throwing water on it but to built a processing wastewater plant. Today Cartagena counts with submarine emissary inaugurated in 2013. The emissary is the third largest in the world. The bay connects with one of our main rivers in Colombia. This is something really good for our economy, but bad for our environment. I’m going to analyse three important factors in Cartagena; Transportation, ports and natural disasters. Always taking in consideration my point of view as a city member and architect.
Transportation
No a days we have no public transportation system that serves the city and its visitors. We have buses that but they are from private companies we also have taxis and private cars. Don’t you think that in a city of islands we should have a water transportation system? We have to develop a system that works together in a net of activities. People coming from the mainland and moving to the islands, and vice versa. Our land transportation should complement with water and make our way to the city much easier. These improvements in transportation would help our abandoned canals and lakes to have life and activities. We could help our community and improve our touristic attraction. Our economy is based on tourism, ports and industrial production, but all of these things are coming in to big problem. They are not working together for the improvement of the city. We have to find a way that all of the producing sectors move towards a sustainable Cartagena a better one. We can refer to city’s as Curitiba in Brazil that manage to arrange their transportation system; “The popularity of Curitiba’s BRT has effected a modal shift from automobile travel to bus travel. Based on 1991 traveler survey results, it was estimated that the introduction of the BRT had caused a reduction of about 27 million auto trips per year, saving about 27 million liters of fuel annually. In particular, 28 percent of BRT riders previously traveled by car.” Or larger city’s as Paris that have manage to put into action bike as a transportation system for locals and visitors;
“The current mayor of Paris – Bertrand Delanoë – is a living liveable city legend. While at the reins of the city for two terms, he has transformed the French capital in so many positive ways. You have to love a mayor quoted as saying, “The fact is that cars no longer have a place in the big cities of our time”. As we can see many cities in the world are becoming aware that water transport can help them solve or at least give other possible solutions of transportation around a city. According to an article published in The City Fix on may 2014 “Three cities experimenting with water-based transport systems are Istanbul, Turkey; Bangkok, Thailand; and Lagos, Nigeria. Each of these cities illustrates the benefits and challenges at different stages of developing urban water transport systems. A common thread throughout each city is the need to effectively connect and integrate water transport with land-based transport for people-centered urban mobility.
Cartagena has many canals that have connected the city though out history, but the years have past and it has become a less city of canals. They have interrupted their natural cycles and their own systems of oxygenation. Now a days we have lots of canals with no flowing water and environmental damages, they´ve been used as garbage dumps through almost all the city.
FT. Lauderdale, Miami, and many city and neighbor hoods are perfect examples for Cartagena, we have no been able to explode are largest potential that its water. This article talks about future of our cities Urban Planning Ideas for 2030, When Billions Will Live in Megacities“Our suggestion is to merge both urban water management and conventional city planning into a comprehensive sector approach of Water Oriented City Planning”. This is a perfect example why we live in a privilege city that is not using all of its advantages. In this other article called Water oriented city planning as key impulse for sustainable urban development they talk of the importance of water ways “The positive effect of incorporating water as main element in city design and landscaping will involve manifold synergies which enhance and prolong the intended positive and actively prevents the “not in my back yard (NIMBY) effect” which often is the limiting factor in environmental politics”.
Natural Disasters
In Cartagena the poor habitants look for dangerous areas to settle because they are lands prohibited for living. They settle in houses of wood, recycled elements or even on plastic tents. When winter comes and our precipitation levels rise to 40 cm of water, there houses flood up or maybe they even get ruined by the wind or the amount of rain. Water flood becomes the second biggest issue and diseases among the population start appearing, our main natural water systems are contaminated and not controlled by regulations.
This mayor problem affects our progress and economy because people don’t have a good standard of living. We have to find a way to control natural disaster by prohibiting the settlements in these different parts of the city or giving a solution to their problems. We should provide architectural solutions like houses that rise with the level of water, or even houses that stand on sticks above the ground. But in a much more profund way, what is really the problem here? Many say its our corrupted system of government that steels the money for infrastructure of the city, this goes way more deep than we are used to. All of the political problems come to a common interest and no progression in our countries.
We have to manage our politics as architects and propose new ideas and solutions for our people. We have to work for our cities and their development for the future. My idea is to renovate Cartagena and use its natural resources as a strong and positive point. Not as it has been all life, destroying our “manglares” that are natural habitats for living species like birds and fishes. We have to conquer our city planning system and help it go on in to a better city. Our economy must rise to levels of admiration and our natural resources are a way of doing it. We don’t have to continue growing in to a city that gives the back to our canals, we have to be a city of water!
Ports
Our city’s best economic system is the port, we have one of the most productive ports in Latin America in the sense of containers per day. Almost everything in Colombia and many countries from South America come through our magical city. But as it has many valuable aspects for the city it has others that are making us stop in our progress. Today “Sociedad Portuaria de Cartagena” that is our biggest port is in the middle of the bay and in the middle of the city. Containers are going up and down all day and night, and 20 meters away there’s a family trying to sleep. It was created in the twenties, and it was far away from the city center, now its an obstacle of growth and an obstacle of circulation of the city.
I propose that we move this port to the industrial port of the city, that has the same bay entrance with much more privileges for the ships and the transportation through put the entire country. The actual land were the port is belongs to the city of Cartagena and it would become a tourist port for cruise lines and a city park for recreational and cultural services. I know this is a very controversial subject to talk about in my city, but for me is the best solution for our obstruction of a beautiful neighbor hood as manga. We would work for a neighborhood of tourist attractions and cultural progress it will become full of nature as it one was and mainly we will enjoy our city from one end to another.
This images are small part of my university thesis, but I think it’s a very interesting proposal for our city progress and expansion. I would like to continue with the project in the future and try to make it real. Its huge and I’m missing lots of thing, social aspects, analysis of population, monetary possibilities and much more stuff. Finally, Cartagena is a city of growth and progress but we as architects have lots of things to do and give.
