The Cemetery's Art of Discord

The empty mausoleums along 26th Street, with their stencils commemorating the conflict's victims.

Does anybody notice? Drivers pass the
mausoleums decorated by Gonzalez.

You've probably noticed them while traveling east along Calle 26 past the Central Cemetery: the mausoleums decorated with stenciled images of men carrying stretchers and corpses representing victims of Colombia's violence.

The thousands of images are the work of artists Beatriz Gonzalez and a partner and provide a

haunting reminder of Colombia's violence, in particular the victims of the 1948 Bogotazo riots...for those who notice them. My impression is that few do, (despite enforced viewing from Calle 26's chronic traffic jams), and even fewer pay attention.

Gonzalez is now fighting to preserve the artwork in the face of city plans to create a park in the old block of the Central Cemetery.

The stencils of the discord.

Historical memory is important. But so is greeen space, particularly in a poor neighborhood with little of it. A football pitch, a skateboard park and a basketball court would give the youths of the troubled Santa Fe neighborhood behind the cemetery an alternative to drugs and gangs. Some young rappers from Santa Fe whom I knew used to tell me almost routinely about their friends getting stabbed and even murdered. I understand that today one of those same rappers is dead and another is an addict.

And, if the city does the sensible thing by using part of the land for recreation while preserving one of the mausoleums, with explanatory information, lots more people would see the memorial and we might have fewer murders to lament.

The situation strikes me as absurd. But not nearly as absurd as the land across the street and the other a few blocks west by the Jaime Garzon mural, which could be nice public parks if the city did not fence them off with barbed wire. Go figger.

Mike Ceaser, of Bogotá Bike Tours

A Minor Example of Municipal Malfunction

Parque la Concordia today, and tomorrow, and the day after...

El Parque de La Concordia is a small public park located above the La Candelaria neighborhood, furnished with some swings, exercise bars and a futsal/basketball court. It's popular with neighborhood sports teams and dog walkers, as well as hippies and pot smokers. It's about the only substantial green area nearby.

At least, that's the way it was, until the city improvement folks got their hands on it.

In March, city workers blocked off the park and began renovation work due to be finished by July 1. July came and went, as did, Sept. 1, the next completion date. Since then, the city appears to have given up on publicly announcing such dates. I'd bet money that the park won't be completed until 2017.

Is this just incompetence? Bad planning? Or, is someone stretching this project out to milk all the money they can from it? After all, besides myself, nobody else seems to be paying attention to this project, even tho this was the neighborhood's only usable court for sports. (The only other one, a few blocks away, is disabled by a separate public construction project.)

Meanwhile, on hill hillside above, the Externado University is racing ahead with its construction of two towers, for which it deforested a large area, and which will block residents' views of the hillside.

The most infuriating part of all this? It was a perfectly good park before they started on it.

Will this history be repeated in the construction of Bogotá's metro system? Many prospective contractors and public officials are undoubtely salivating already. On the other hand, the metro project will recieve lots of media scrutiny, something which doesn't happen with small projects like this one.

And here's the topper: The electricity company clearly did their work, trusting, I suppose, that the contractors would actually finish by July. So, now we have and unused and useless park lighted up all night by two dozen super-bright bulbs, for the benefit of one security guard. This is a nation with blackouts and, until the recent rains, an impending electricity crisis.

By Mike Ceaser, of Bogotá Bike Tours

Bogotá's Own High-Line*

Children play ball in the new Parque Bicentenario, with the Biblioteca Nacional in the background.

Five years late and undoubtedly way over budget, El Parque Bicentenario was inaugurated last Friday, giving Bogotanos a new place to hang out, if not more green space.

The park was envisioned for 2010, the bicentennial of Colombia's founding. However, design changes and a lawsuit by neighbors delayed the project until this year - when Colombia is 207 years old.

The concept of a public space above Calle 26 connecting Independence Park and to the Museum of Modern Art was originated by famed Colombian architect Rogelio Salmona, who died in 2008. The new park is supposed to right a historic wrong: Parque de la Independencia, created in 2010 to host the World's Fair, has suffered repeated amputations as avenues slashed thru its western and southern sides. Ironically, the new Parque Bicentenario took yet another bite out of Independence Park because its elevation required the construction of access ramps and stairways on its northern side. Building those meant eliminating

A romantic moment in the park.

grassy space and cutting down several trees, and prompted an unsuccesful lawsuit by residents of the Torres del Parque on Independence Park's other side. The new park's great cost also made me wonder whether the couldn't have better spent the money creating a conventional park in some other, disadvantaged part of the city.

But that's all in the past. Parque Bicentenario is now finished, and the city has created a pleasant area for relaxing, reading, and perhaps small concerts or theatre events. It's an area of stairways and winding paths bordered by small gardens. When I visited on Monday afternoon, the Bicentenario was active with couples and families sitting, tossing balls around and taking photos, while security guards warned people not to stand on the benches. But the popularity may just be novelty. I'm not sure what will draw people here, except the promise of a quiet spot to walk or sit and read or kiss. But you can find those same things a few meters away in Parque de la Independencia, wher you can also lie on the grass and let your dog run around.

The park's entrance on Carrera Septima.

I also wondered why the designers included so many stairways where wheelchair-friendlier ramps would have worked just as well (perhaps to discourage skateboarding and bicycle riding). And what will happen during rainstorms, when torrents of water will flow down into Parque de la Independencia, turning its grass into muddy pits. And Bicentenario's paucity of trash cans also seems strainge. Sure, it's best to pack out what you pack in, but that's not Colombian culture. Hope not to see this park littered with pop cans and cigarrette butts.

In a few months, will this new park be forgotten by most Bogotanos and taken over by potheads, beggars and skateboarders? Let's hope that city officials remember to fund activities here to keep this an active place.

*For anybody who doesn't follow New York urban developments, the High Line is popular new park their built on top of an old, raised trolley line.

Calle 26 traffic passing underneath the park.

A family in the park.

A rare sight: Trash cans.

A light festival at night.

The original Parque de la Independencia, now much reduced.

Learn about the park's and neighborhood's histories.

Crowds at the Parque Bicentenario´s Inauguration.

At night, the park's lights create a show against the hills.

Ramps and stairways sliced into neighboring Parque de la Independencia.

Lots of rules, as always.

Why stairs, instead of ramps?

Nearby, the iconic Torre Colpatria.

By Mike Ceaser, of Bogotá Bike Tours

The Privatization of Bogotá's Hills

Entrance to the Green Park apartment towers
on Bogotá's Eastern Hills. (Photo: Caracol Radio)

Late last year, a Colombian high court ruled that the Forestry Reserve in Bogotá's Cerros Orientales - the Eastern Hills bordering the city - was sacrosanct and no licenses for construction could be issued there. Bogotá then-Mayor Gustavo Peto, who styled himself an environmentalist, vow that no more building would be allowed on the hills.

Of course, it hasn't happened. To see for yourself, just look uphill from La Candelaria, where the Externado University is building vertical parking lots on the hillside, albeit apparently outside the Forestry Reserve. And, about ten days ago, a high court ruled that construction of a luxury apartment complex named Green Park in La Calera could go ahead because it was not located inside the forestry reserve.

A traffic jam on the road to La Calera. Apartments
near here will only worsen congestion. (Photo: ADN)

Perhaps these projects really aren't inside the reserve or the buffer area supposed to protect the reserve from the city - but such border lines seem to experience remarkable flexibility when they conflict with the profits of  influential builders. But that's only part of the point. Bogotá's leaders have declared many times that open space is important and should be preserved, as well as that the city should grow by becoming denser, rather than sprawling, which compounds the city's traffic jams.

Construction cranes on Bogotá's Eastern Hills.
The Externado University is building two towers
with almost 500 parking spaces.

When environmental authorities suspended construction on the Green Park apartments in June of last year, they said that the construction damaged the area's plants and animals and that the site was inside the  Teusacá River,'s watershed, "should be a protected area." Presumably, all of those things are still true nine months later, yet a court nevertheless has ruled that construction on the apartments can go ahead - all of which makes one wonder what when on 'behind the curtains.'

'Bogotá is being renewed here.' This huge lot, where the
Spanish government was going to build a cultural center,
has sat empty for years.

Legal issues aside, why do planning officials permit projects like these which contradict the city's expressed values? In the city center, for example, there are numerous unused or underused spaces where a university could build, near mass transit and without deforesting Bogotá's emblematic hills.

Fewer trees and more concrete in the hills will worsen flooding and pollution in Bogotá. Car-based constructions on the hills will make Bogotá's monumental traffic jams even worse. All of which will pile huge costs on the city and citizenry.

Expert courts and curadurias to reinterpret the forestry reserve's borders to facilitate more construction. The hills, which by all rights should be a resource for all all Bogotanos - and particularly for the poor, who can't afford to escape into the countryside - will be progressively privatized by the wealthy.

The empty lot in the center of Bogotá - why don't they build here, instead of deforesting Bogotá's hills?

Traffic congestion in central Bogotá will only get worse with more construction of auto-dependant projects far from TransMilenio.

One of the historical center's daily traffic jams. 

By Mike Ceaser, of Bogotá Bike Tours

A Park for Central Bogotá?

TransMilenio buses turn around in the Santa Fe neighborhood. 

This huge area in the depressed Santa Fe neighborhood, but just blocks from the Torre Colpatria, was cleared of buildings to create turn-around lane for TransMilenio buses. Unfortunately, the lanes are now only lightly used, altho that will hopefully change as the TM system adds buses to its Calle 26 and Carrera 10 lines.

Several blocks of empty urban space here are evidently slated for the construction of a Central Station for the TM system, and perhaps a future subway. But that will take years, if it ever happens.

Meanwhile, why not roof over these lanes and turn the area into a badly needed Central Park for this depressed and very un-green neighborhood? For the capital of a football-crazy nation, central Bogotá has terribly few public football pitches (in part a result of the fact that several of the city's most important parks are on hillsides).

The turnaround lanes are just a few
blocks from the Centro Internacional.

City planners would surely respond that building a huge platform here would be hugely expensive. And they'd be right. But, not far away, the city has blown a fortune trying to roof over Calle 26 between Independence Park and the Modern Art Museum, a project which has stalled because of design problems and objections from wealthy neighbors. A park here, in contrast, would serve many more people and undoubtedly generate fewer objections.

This lot on Ave. Septima and Calle 19 has sat vacant for years, despite a sign announcing a shopping center. It would be ideal for a transit station and a public park. 

By Mike Ceaser, of Bogotá Bike Tours

A Farm for Bogotá?

Horses graze in the piece of land between Simon Bolivar Park and Calle 26.

Believe it or not, this idyllic piece of land is near the center of Bogotá, between Parque Simon Bolivar and congested Calle 26. The land is also at the center of a controversy over its fate.

About 31 years ago, this 26-hectare green space was designated to become part of Simon Bolivar Park, according to El Espectador, but the city has never found the money to buy it from its private owner. Now, the city's proposed and polemical Territorial Ordering Plan (POT) would designate much of it for urbanization. Neighbors are protesting.

The green space is located south of
Simon Bolivar Park, between it and
Calle 26.

The idea's promoters argue that the lot is located in the Teusaquillo district, which has already has more green space per resident than most other parts of the city. But that's a very narrow perspective. Bogotá is a very dense city, and Bogotanos come from all over to visit Simon Bolivar Park, which becomes extremely crowded on a sunny weekend. Those crowds will surely increase with the new Calle 26 TransMilenio line, which includes a station near this huge green space.

What's more, this land has to be unique in Bogotá. If it's covered up by - god forbid - a shopping mall or apartment complex, Bogotá will lose an once-in-a-city's-history opportunity.

Rather, Bogotá could use this unique piece of land to do something creative and memorable. And what occurs to me is a working zoo. Sure it sounds weird, but Bogotá's a very urban city increasingly isolated from the countryside which feeds it. An urban zoo would be great for kids to visit, as well as a great educational opportunity for students to learn about ecology, sustainable development, agriculture and much else in an interactive environment.

The area could also serve as a simple zoo, with species native to Colombia and the Andes, which would complement the nearby Botanical Gardens. (Bogotá does have a zoo, but a good ways south of the city center.)

I'm sure that ther are other excellent potential uses for the open space. But burying it under yet another forgettable development certainly isn't one of them.

By Mike Ceaser, of Bogotá Bike Tours