Q COSTA RICA – Guillermo Carazo, president of the Cámara Costarricense de la Construcción (Costa Rican Chamber of Construction), says when planning cities, a vital theme is to leave space for green areas and parks where people can enjoy and share. But, that has been greatly ignored or poorly executed in the urban development of the Greater Metropolitan Area (GAM) of San Jose.
Carazo said the people of the GAM are condemned to resort to shopping centres in search of recreation.
“The saddest thing that can happen to a society is to have to go for a stroll in a mall,” he said during the morning radio program Nuestra Voz, on Thursday.
According to Carazo, the excess of procedures and multiple consultations that must be formulated when designing the territorial planning plans of each canton limit and obstruct the materialization of these and the innovation that arises within them.
Carazo considers that the execution of the projects must be more expeditious and technical to eliminate the bureaucracy, and thus be able to concretize plans of modern cities.
New vision. Another of Carazo’s proposals is that residential areas should be close to workplaces, which, he believes, would be a solution to the traffic congestion that every day torments drivers.
That sentiment goes along the rhetoric of both former president Laura Chinchilla (2010 – 2014) while in office, saying new development (in the city) should go vertical, moving away from the traditional horizontal; and San Jose mayor, Johnny Araya, who in the past has campaigned for bringing people back into the city centre.
“It’s about planning and executing, but with efficiency,” he said, referring to the fact that the GAM city model separated the houses from work and service centres, generating an urban fragmentation that has an impact on the quality of life.
Source Ameliarueda.com; files
