11th Street Gets Humanized

Dining and dog walking on the street.

Calle 11 in La Candelaria has a new, human aspect these days in La Candelaria. It's not quite Paris, but a city experiment in the use of the public space, to see how people respond. So far, they appear to be responding well. The street is busy with tourists and locals walking, walking dogs and even eating. Artists offer their works. And you don't have to worry about evading cars or breathing fumes.

Officials seem to have realized, finally, that street artists are an asset, not a problem.

Hopefully, the city will decide to extend and expand this experiment. Bogotá has enough congested, noisy avenues, and officials have long talked of pedestrianizing the increasingly gridlocked La Candelaria neighborhood.

Art for sale on the street.

Pedestrians on the car-free street.

Giant chess on the street.

 

A painted street. Much of the street art is allusive of novelist Gabriel Garcia Marquéz.

Paris in Bogotá?

By Mike Ceaser, of Bogotá Bike Tours