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Buenos Aires Residents Rebel Against Apartment Towers |
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By Marcela Valente*
Residents
fear that the Caballito neighborhood's utilities could collapse
from the unregulated proliferation of apartment towers. By 2008
an estimated 40,000 more people will live in the district.
BUENOS AIRES, Dec 11 (Tierramérica) - Upset
with the multiplication of apartment towers in neighborhoods of
single-family dwellings, residents in Buenos Aires are calling for
a halt to unregulated construction that threatens to push water
and sanitation services to the brink of collapse and leave the city
without green spaces.
The epicenter of the phenomenon is the central neighborhood of Caballito,
where 15.4 percent of all new buildings were built in the January-August
period, although the district covers just three percent of the capital's
total area. In contrast, in 14 neighborhoods in the southern part
of the city, which cover 11 times the area, just three percent of
new construction occurred.
"They want to bury us under the cement," protested Gustavo Desplats,
leader of Proto Comuna Caballito, an umbrella of more than 20 neighborhood
groups and part of the broader Green Citizen Network, in a Tierramérica
interview.
The movement emerged in June with a demonstration by 40 Caballito
residents. But by December they had reached protest number 15, which
drew participation by thousands of people from different neighborhoods.
The neighbors issue calls to make noise on various streetcorners,
to march wearing facemasks to protest air pollution, or to set up
barricades around apartment towers under construction in the middle
of residential districts.
Now the demand is for balance in urban development. The residents
point to what they see as a lack of a strategic plan. They say the
existing regulations are obsolete and the investors are the ones
who decide, without concern for whether the apartment towers are
being built in areas of single houses or whether there is sufficient
infrastructure to maintain the capacity of public utilities.
"It's a dynamic that tears the social fabric, creating ghettos in
neighborhoods with luxury apartment towers and pushing out middle
class residents, who undergo a process of marginalization," said
Desplats.
To put the brakes on the phenomenon, they call for suspending construction
and creating a government body that coordinates the growth of the
entire urban core, with resident participation. "If the state doesn't
intervene, the growth gap between neighborhoods will be greater
and greater," said Desplats.
According to figures from the National Statistics and Census Institute,
in the city of Buenos Aires live 2.7 million people. But the entire
metropolitan area is home to 12 million.
Between January and October of this year, the number of construction
permit applications filed with the city government was up 48 percent
with respect to the same period in 2005. This growth indicator has
been on the rise since the currency devaluation of 2002, when construction
became a safe bet as an alternative investment.
City lawmaker Beatriz Baltroc, of the governing Front for Victory,
told Tierramérica "there is unchecked growth", and proposed stricter
regulations for apartment construction.
Desplats also noted, "We are one of the Buenos Aires neighborhoods
with worst environmental and noise pollution, and we are still the
ones with greatest real estate investments." This is due to the
district's strategic location in the center of the city.
But the neighborhood is not prepared for the avalanche of development.
In Buenos Aires overall, there are 15,000 people per square kilometer.
But in Caballito there are 28,000 people per square kilometer --
and the World Health Organization recommends a maximum of 20,000.
As for urban green spaces, WHO suggests 12 to 15 square meters per
inhabitant. Caballito has barely 1.3 square meters per person.
The neighborhood operates with water and sanitation services built
in 1911 for an area of estates where 25,000 people lived. Now it
has 190,000 residents, and with the new apartment towers will be
seeing 40,000 more before the end of 2008.
There are many complaints from residents about the lack of water
pressure or basements being flooded with sewage.
The neighborhood movement made a big impact in November when the
courts accepted a request for protection that would halt construction
of apartment towers on 16 blocks until a study ensures that public
services won't collapse.
A decree from the city government put a 90-day stay on building
permits in the six neighborhoods with fastest growth in Buenos Aires.
The construction companies were up in arms, but that only seemed
to strengthen the resolve of the residents.
Osvaldo Sidoli, attorney with the Green Citizen Network and responsible
for the legal filing that halted construction, told Tierramérica
that another has been filed, targeting building in other parts of
Caballito, one in Villa Pueyrredón and two in Palermo.
"We don't want to stop construction (of towers of more than 2,500
square meters), but rather to ensure that there are public hearings
involving the residents, as the law stipulates, and that the corresponding
environmental impact studies are carried out," said Sidoli.
"There are contractors who on the same block build two towers at
1,250 square meters each, to avoid having to comply with the requirements,"
he added.
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