The passage of civilizations over the centuries has left behind a trail of skeletons of large cities turned into uninhabited ruins. There are more frequent cases of decadence, which ends with the transformation of bustling metropolises into second-rate villas. The future of the capital of Ecuador is seen with anxiety and fear. We are experiencing a process whose beginning cannot be attributed to one administration or another, nor can it be approximately indicated when it began. As is easy to see, there is an accelerated abandonment of the classic urban perimeter of Quito by the wealthy classes.

The historic urban center developed closed between the slopes of Pichincha and the eastern hills (Puengasí, Itchimbía, Auqui, Pata de Guápulo, Wanwiltawa and others). Because of this, the city got a longitudinally elongated shape, not very suitable for adequate urban development, because it presented serious problems of mobilization and distribution of services. Adequate answers were not always found, so in the 21st century the affluent and affluent strata of the population began to slide towards the Tumbaco Valley, which experienced an urban explosion that almost immediately reproduced the problems from which these social groups were fleeing. Disorderly growth and its correlate, the chaos of circulation, are equal to what was experienced in the residential districts of the urban core. But these and other inconveniences did not stop the exodus, which increased when the middle classes followed the path of the richest, which is common in these phenomena. The peak was reached with the recent pandemic, because many families, suffocated in small apartments during the isolation, decided to look for new alternatives with light and greenery, conditions that are easier to meet in the valley.

The presence of consumers with a high consumption capacity is essential for thousands of activities and businesses in the urban area. Some of them solve the situation by opening branches, but others, after closing their traditional stores, move directly to new hotspots. Such important activities as gastronomy are visibly affected by this trend, which affects the vital tourism sector, which cannot survive solely on the clientele of foreign visitors. Cultural work has been reduced in number and dimensions, with the aggravating circumstance that the valley does not have enough interested population to generate its own movement. Not to mention the vital real estate sector, prices of all types of real estate have fallen precisely in areas that have always been considered “prime”. Neighborhoods that have been abandoned even by car repair shops and blocks of flats where you can count a dozen signs offering “rent or sell” in a desperate tone. This text is based on impressions, but the signs are clear and undeniable, it is evident that urban planners, sociologists and authorities are obliged to study the phenomenon in order to propose explanations and, hopefully, solutions. (OR)