Guatemala builds private city to escape crime

[Judi Lynn]

Article updated: 1/13/2013 7:20 AM
Guatemala builds private city to escape crime



By Associated Press .
.

GUATEMALA CITY — The highway climbs toward the edge of Guatemala City, past deep ravines where the poorest residents of the capital live in thousands of cinder block huts, roofed with plastic sheets and powered by black cables stealing electricity from nearby lampposts.

Seven miles south of the historic center, the rutted, two-lane road comes to a set of towering white stucco walls and a pair of broad cast-iron gates that open onto apartment buildings and storefronts designed in Spanish colonial style. Cupolas top red-tile roofs. Residents sip cappuccinos and lattes under red umbrellas in the sleek silver chairs of cafes facing a cobblestone promenade.

Guatemalan developers are building a nearly independent city for the wealthy on the outskirts of a capital marred by crime and snarled by traffic. At its heart is the 34-acre Paseo Cayala, with apartments, parks, high-end boutiques, church, nightclubs, and restaurants, all within a ring of white stucco walls.

The builders of Paseo Cayala say it is a livable, walkable development that offers housing for Guatemalans of a variety of incomes, though so far the cheapest apartments cost about 70 times the average Guatemalan's yearly wage. It's bordered by even costlier subdivisions begun earlier. Eventually, the Cayala Management Group hopes to expand the project into "Cayala City," spreading across 870 acres (352 hectares), an area a little larger than New York's Central Park.

More:
http://www.dailyherald.com/article/20130113/business/701139955/

[a geek named Bob]

1. so what's the problem? n/t

[Judi Lynn]

2. Images of Paseo Cayalá, Guatemala:

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[/center]

[a geek named Bob]

3. So what am I missing? n/t

[arendt]

5. Its probably a "charter city", aka neo-colonialism

They tried this in Honduras, and it fell apart because the people down there did not like:
1) ripping up their laws for the benefit of gringo corporations.
2) having all the credit grabbed by Chicago-school jerks like Romer.

This article is real short on the legal arrangements here. To do this, some kind of extra-territoriality was required in Honduras, and probably is required here. You remember extra-territoriality - the Shanghai bund.

There was a segment last week on This American Life about the debacle in Honduras. From the story:

Romer has more or less the same idea: poor countries could invite richer countries to found and run ideal "charter cities." It's not colonialism, Romer explains, because the poor countries are asking for help.

[a geek named Bob]

6. hmmm...

This sounds a lot like the main theme from Niven and Pournelle's Oath of Fealty.

I'm not familiar with the Shanghai Bund.

All I can say is that this model city looks nice.

[Bacchus4.0]

4. looks pretty nice. n/t

s

[Judi Lynn]

7. A Sanitized Version of Urban Life in Guatemala's Capital

A Sanitized Version of Urban Life in Guatemala's Capital
Sarah Goodyear
Jan 11, 2013

Real estate developers in Guatemala City have recognized a demand for residential neighborhoods with all the perks of a traditional city center – a place where shopping, cafés, and restaurants are within walking distance, where people meet their neighbors while strolling along boulevards lined with human-scale architecture. It’s an old-city vision.

But it is not in the old city.

The Associated Press reported the other day on the development of Paseo Cayalá, a high-end gated community seven miles from the chaotic center of the old Guatemala City. This enclave has been designed in accordance with New Urbanist principles, providing a haven from the flagrant crime and disarray of the nation's capital, which has a population of more than a million (the surrounding metro area is closer to 3 million) and is growing rapidly, with many new residents living in slums or on the street.

Paseo Cayalá, like many gated communities around the developing world, promises discreet safety (the guards carry weapons, but they’re concealed), order, and a pleasant lifestyle that harks back to the days when cities were smaller and more manageable.
But according to critics quoted in the AP piece, the creation of this high-end urban refuge threatens efforts to improve the true historic capital city down the road:

Cayala "is a place that tries to imitate a historic center, the way people move around an urban city, but it fails because it is not a city," said architect Carlos Mendizabal, who worked to rebuild the turn-of-the-century Cinelux movie theater, one of Guatemala City's first cinemas.

cont'd

More:
http://www.theatlanticcities.com/neighborhoods/2013/01/sanitized-version-urban-life-guatemala/4368/

[flamingdem]

8. Some good comments on this Guardian article on the topic

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/jan/09/guatemalan-capital-wealthy-haven-city

[Judi Lynn]

9. Yes, they are interesting. Could easily have been written by USAmericans.

It would be almost natural for people to want to know more about what lies behind these situations, wouldn't it? Oh, well!