Due to family matters, I have been traveling from Quito to Guayaquil more often than usual in recent months. On those trips, I found something that is a real anomaly in the world of urbanism. Some time ago, on my grandfather’s land, its current owners built a four-story house. They had a hardware store there with their warehouses. It turned out that the said building was demolished, without even reaching 20 years of useful life. The purpose of the mentioned demolition is the nightmare of every urban economist: the lot was turned into a parking lot. This means that demolishing the building and charging for parking was more profitable than using the existing construction. A perfect example of how critical the situation is in downtown Guayaquil.

On an urban level, these types of reversals have been seen in the city that is the urban and real estate failure capital of the world: Detroit. In a place that was once the Mecca of the automotive world, there have been upheavals of even worse proportions. In it, city land was transformed into agricultural production plots. This has never happened before in the history of cities. Otherwise, the process is reversed: agricultural lands, which due to excessive exploitation begin to become bare (long-term agriculture squeezes out all the nutrients from the soil until it becomes sterile), usually become urban lands, which become at the service of the real estate market. In fact, it is one of the fundamental keys to the excessive horizontal growth of our cities; except for the car.

About transportation in Guayaquil

Seen under a magnifying glass, the appearance of new centers of urban development on the peripheries is a waste of resources. New sectors require new service networks; water, electricity, roads, fiber optics, etc. Worse, it means that basic service networks in existing sectors are not being used to their full capacity. We accumulate several kilometers of cables and pipes per inhabitant; and that the population does not have a significant growth that would justify it.

So what can you do? The first thing to do is to realize that the city center is not what it used to be. There are many groups in society who, however, can see this space as an opportunity rather than an obstacle. Then it is convenient to gather these groups and others around the table to listen to them.

Seen under a magnifying glass, the appearance of new centers of urban development on the peripheries is a waste of resources.

How many other problems could be solved using the existing infrastructure? Downtown Guayaquil continues to be a gathering place, where various activities and institutions are within walking distance. Its traditional portals allow us to walk relatively long distances without exposing ourselves to too much rain or sun.

If a building can be demolished to turn it into a parking lot, couldn’t the same be done to build a taller building? The numbers show that it is possible. You just have to know how to convince potential stakeholders and facilitate the efforts of said interests that benefit the city. (OR)