Where the $$ Goes

I walked out of my apartment this morning and started along La 70, one of the most important commercial streets in the city only four perpendicular blocks from my doorstep. Instead of the usual traffic and street vendor sounds competing with the birds and business bustle, jarring, hacking, less than unpleasant noises of construction accompanied my morning stroll. Today was one of the first days of the new "renewal" project that the city will carry out over the next nine months, improving the road, making the sidewalks more consumer-friendly, and planting new breeds of trees. Now, I have always been fond of La 70 because it seems much better maintained (not to mention greener) than most of Medellin's other main avenues, and would never considered it in need of a face-lift. But according to a recent newspaper article a neighbor posted to my building's message board, the alcaldia seems to think that investing $10,500 million pesos, or $4,730,000 USD, along 14 blocks is a worthy project.

As a strange coincidence, later on this afternoon I was reviewing one of my recent interviews with a displaced couple living in the barrios populares (slums) creeping up the surrounding mountainsides, and they talked for a while about the frivolity of many of the city's recent public works. The new Parque Explora, an admittedly amazing interactive science museum that's free for people of strati 1,2 and 3; the five libraries located throughout the different comunas with public computer and internet access, and renovation of buildings in the centro were all mentioned. This couple was saying that although these places are all a great way to improve the culture of the city and poor populations, they feel like the city is overlooking the more basic needs of their people. Those who don't have access to the health care they need, are suffering within the high unemployment rate, and watch their children receive mediocre education in public schools see that those billions of pesos could be put to a better use. They ask themselves what good is a new, free museum and library if they can't even pay for the bus fare to get there?

Point taken.

I do see the social and economic benefits of investing in these projects (from the city's perspective); creating jobs, cultural opportunities, and a stimulus for further spending in depressed areas that would benefit from an influx of visitors. This is all part of one of the main social campaigns in Medellin to combat the rampant violence: trying to get people to take more pride in their surroundings. It has definitely worked. The daily homicide rate has gone down in the past 5 years, and people now feel safe to leave their houses at night or visit parts of the city that were previously literal war-zones. Paisas in general are committed to solidarity, so even slight public incentives to bolster respect for their mini-metropolis easily results in larger social changes.

But after living here for ten months and getting to see behind the city's closed doors, the beautiful new facades seem like band-aids over much bigger problems that the government is not addressing. Poverty, unemployment, hunger, and homelessness are still rampant throughout Medellin and have not been solved the progressive organizations dedicated to the people affected. I have found that the people here are apt to list off the ways in which they are working to combat structural issues without admitting the low impact they have on the overall population. At first I was awed by the work being done, now I am just wary of their optimistic enthusiasm. Walking through orange cones, stepping over holes in the sidewalk, and listening to jack hammers every day for the next year assuredly will not improve my disposition.