Quito is one of the most important historical cities in the American continent. In fact it holds the largest, best preserved historical centre in South America. In the past two decades the historical centre has been benefitting from large amounts of public resources for its conservation and beautification. It is widely understood that the local and central governments intended to stimulate a
gentrification process, however, it has not happened. Quito's centre has also conserved it's popular character, with most housing options and commernce targeting middle-low income citizens (some 60% of its population). Indeed, visiting Quito's centre is a cultural experience, understanding culture as the expression of societies' identity, creativity and livelihoods. Despite that this city area has the largest concentration of museums, cultural centres and other cultural spaces targetting wealthier, higher educated citizens, most people living and visiting the centre during the weekends are truly representative of the country's social spectrum, mostly from the middle-low income groups.
The interesting thing is that wealthier, higher educated citizens generally find the city centre dangerous and incovenient for car parking. Somehow, the large real estate businesses and their clients have not seen enough interest in the city centre, which has prevented an informal economic eviction of the lower-income residents, because of increased rents, house prices, and property taxes. In addition, businesses are still catering to middle-lower income consumers, preventing a further decrease in the accessibility to less wealthy natives.
Credits: Image of Quito's Espejo street from travelpod.com. Image of Quito's La Ronda from skyscrapercity.com
Thanks for the comment. Crime in Quito's centre is not worse than in other parts of the city. What happens, as in other Latin American cities, is that the better-off citizens have prejudices against lower-income neighbourhoods. This situation is related to unjust social relations rather than to crime statistics. Poverty distribution in Latin American cities is not geometrically concentric. Income distribution patterns respond to social and political factors determining land policy rather than to physical factors.
ReplyDeleteHave you ever seen that Onion article "Sometimes I Feel Like I'm the Only One Trying to Gentrify This Neighborhood"?
ReplyDeletehttp://www.theonion.com/articles/sometimes-i-feel-like-im-the-only-one-trying-to-ge,11249/
That is sort of how I feel living in the Centro Historico, haha. I feel waaaaay safer there than in the Mariscal, you won't catch me down there. We are glad they can't seem to convince rich people to move to our neighborhood.