Last week I was in Caracas and a very good friend visited me, a well-known architect who works in the Alcaldia Metropolitana. He brought me a very nice gift, not so much for the gift itself , but because it gave me a sense of renewed optimism about the future. What he gave me was a copy of the Strategic Plan for Caracas 2020: The city we want to build.
This is the work of the Alcaldia Metropolitana, presided by Antonio Ledezma and the other municipalities, together with a whole bunch of volunteers. The material I got has two maps, today’s map of Caracas and the plan of what is required or the objectives for the city in 2020. This is the map I show above, it was a large map, so I took a picture with my phone to be able to show it to you.
The plan has general and specific goals. Some qualitative, some quantitative. Things it wants changed. Parks needed. Some things are ambitious, like removing private security to public streets.Others are controversial, like converting the golf courses in Country Club and Valle Arriba into parks.
But it is clear that people have been planning and thinking. Discussing things. Quite a change from what we have seen in the last twelve years.
I will not bore you with the details, but you can look up the website of Plan Caracas 2020, They have a Facebook page: PlanCaracas2020. They tweet: @plancaracas2020 or you can write to them if you like or don’t like something at plancaracas202@imutc. The text with the update of the plan is here.
The whole thing is like the fresh air Caracas needs, an organized group of people thinking and planning, experts and professionals in the relevant fields, not ignorant captains with no clue about what they are doing. Hopefully all Mayors of the municipalities of Caracas in 2013 will be from opposition parties, so that this plan can become a reality.
The Devil's Excrement 