Jazz in the Jorge Eliecer Gaitan Theatre

The jazz fusion trio. 

The legendary Teatro Gaitan on Seventh Ave. hosted an informal jazz concert this afternoon, as part of the city government's 'Bogotá Humana' campaign.

The very grand art deco theatre is named after populist politician Jorge Eliecer Gaitan, whose 1948 assassination triggered the Bogotazo riots, which destroyed much of the city. Gaitan made some of his demagogic speeches in the 70-year-old theatre.

It's a pleasant place right now, thanks to the city's pedestrianization of five blocks of Ave. Septima during the replacement of the bridge over 26th St. Unfortunately, this peace won't last. A sign at the construction street counts down the days until the new bridge is supposed to be finished and Seventh returns to its normal condition of noise, chaos and pollution.

The theatre plans a series of Sunday events for children over the next month. 

The theatre's front - quiet and car-free for a while yet. 

The lobby doors make a nice pattern. 

Gaitan's bust in the theatre. 

The theatre has a nice art-deco style, both inside and out. 

They've also used the theatre's entrance hallway for photo exhibits, this one about the teaching of arts to children.

By Mike Ceaser, of Bogotá Bike Tours

A Walking Revolution on Seventh Ave.

Cars stay out: Seventh Ave. at 19th Street. 

Seventh Ave. showed off its new look today as a calm, walkable, breathable street, which remains a transit corridor, even if some people will deny that.

Only 152 days left!

The long-delayed demolition of Seventh Ave.'s bridge over 26th St. was done today as part of the two new TransMilenio lines being built on 10 Ave and 26th St. This is one of the last, but also the longest and most difficult steps in the troubled expansion project, which originally was supposed to be finished in 2010. City officials say that building a new and presumably better bridge will take five months - and we all know how accurate their previous projections have been.

This couple with a bicycle and a baby
carriage found a clear path on Seventh Ave. 

But Mayor Gustavo Petro is using the demolition of this major bridge to experiment in 'humanistic' transit planning, by pedestrianizing a stretch of Seventh Ave. Today, the blocks between 19th and 26th Streets and beyond were off limits to almost all motor vehicles. The stretch of Seventh Ave. between Plaza Bolivar and 19th St. will follow, Petro has said. This is a sort of test for a possible permanent pedestrianization of central Bogotá, Petro says.

'Enjoy this new pedestrian
space...Give up hurrying.' 

The pedestrianization is opposed by many retailers, including the National Federation of Retailers, FENALCO. Retailers are concerned that fewer shoppers will venture downtown and that the closed street will be invaded by pickpockets and illegal, informal vendors. But in some other cities pedestrianization has helped retailers, by making shopping safer and more pleasant.

Green means 'go' for cyclists. 

The city has already drawn a bike lane down the center of Seventh Ave. 

Lots of cops keeping order and keeping street vendors away. But will they stay?

But this cyclist wasn't using it...

The only motorized vehicles on this stretch of Seventh were these TransMilenio shuttles. A good idea. 

26th St., seen from 10th Ave. 

The chasm at 26th St. 

...and the remains of the bridge. 

The city built this nice pedestrian bridge detouring around the demolished bridge. 

The city is roofing over 26th St., which will expand Parque de la Independencia and connect it to the Museum of Modern Art. 

North of 26th St., pedestrians ruled, too. 

On 10 Ave., the TransMilenio work has advanced. Hopefully, they won't wait for the bridge to get it operating.  

As always, the chess players were doing their thing. 

The usual vendors are still around. 

Playing foot volleyball in the middle of Seventh Ave. 

19th St. Crowded and chaotic. 

The sidewalk south of 19th St. was busier and crowded with the usual vendors. 

By Mike Ceaser, of Bogotá Bike Tours

Back to the Future on Seventh Ave?

Seventh Ave. today: Chaotic, polluted and slow. 

The future Seventh Ave?

First, there were horse-drawn cars, then came streetcars, then buses, then private cars, then electric trolleys, then TransMilenio - and then back to streetcars, now known as tramcars or light rail?

Mayor-elect Gustavo Petro plans to build a streetcar line on Seventh Ave. It's just the latest of many transit schemes for the historic but chaotic and polluted avenue, including a subway, a TransMilenio line, a scaled-down TransMilenio line, an 'ecological corridor' and now light rail.

              Light rail has several positives:

* It's narrow, enabling it to fit into skinny Seventh Ave.
* It doesn't pollute.
* Light rail looks sleek and modern, gives a city a panache and can attract tourists.
* While light rail's construction costs and time might be greater than an express bus line's, light rail's operation and maintenance costs are lower.
* Perhaps most importantly, higher-income people, like most of the residents along Seventh Ave., are more willing to ride trains than buses.

Passengers in a light rail car.

               But on the negative side:

* Light rail lacks the flexibility of an express bus system.
* It'll probably take longer and be more expensive to build than light rail would.
* Most importantly, it'll require passengers to deboard and perhaps change stations when transferring from the streetcar to Transmilenio (or a subway) and back again.

If the tramway does get built, it'll take Bogotá back to the first half of this century, when streetcars -called tranvias - carried bogotanos from south Bogotá up to Chapinero (a separate city then). At first, the cars were pulled by horses and mules, then for a short time operated on batteries until power lines were installed.

Streetcars on Seventh Ave. near Plaza Bolivar.

Riders hang out of the doors of a streetcar on Seventh Ave. 

The streetcar system, operated by the Bogotá City Railway Company,  became a symbol of Colombian nationalism in 1910 in an explosion of resentment against the system's U.S. owners. Shortly before, the United States had separated Panama from Colombia and made it into an independent nation in order to dig the Panama Canal. When one of the Railway Company's American owners, Johnson Martin, insulted a Bogotá policeman, Bogotanos responded by boycotting the  streetcar system until its owners were forced to sell it to the city of Bogotá.

Streetcars burning during the Bogotazo. 

The municipal owners continued expanding the system and buying new streetcars. However, in 1948 tragedy intervened. The assassination of populist politician Jorge Eliecer Gaitan triggered huge riots, called the Bogotazo, in which many buildings were burned, thousands of people were killed and the streetcars pushed over and torched. Many believe that the owners of rival bus systems, eager to destroy the competition, paid rioters to destroy the streetcars. The streetcar system limped on until 1951, when the mayor ordered the rails paved over, killing the system.

It's sad contemplating what might have been if Bogotá had preserved, expanded and modernized its urban rail system. Today, clean and orderly streetcars might carry people across the city, without the pall of smog now enveloping many Bogota avenues, and also serve as a tourist attraction.

Streetcar tracks can still be seen on Seventh Ave. and Jimenez, apparently left there as a memorial to Gaitan, who was assassinated nearby. 

A map of Bogotá in 1910 shows the streetcar line running along Seventh Ave. and then north to Chapinero. 

Find more info at: The Tramways of Bogotá (from wich I borrowed several pictures.)

Wikipedia: Los Tranvias de Bogotá.

Del Tranvia del TransMilenio


By Mike Ceaser, of Bogotá Bike Tours

The Neverending Story of La Septima

The future 'Green Ave. Septima'?

First, it was a full-scale Transmilenio line along Seventh Ave. up to 170th St. Then, a Transmilenio 'light' line up to 100th St., more or less. And now it's a 'green corridor' with bike lanes, an electric bus line and zero emissions.

Seventh Ave. today - jammed up. 

Well, that's just wonderful. Carrera Septima., Bogotá's most historic and representative avenue, really does deserve a makeover that will transform its current chaos, pollution and congestion into something clean and efficient and even pleasant. But this zero-emission 'green corridor' is another utopian dream that's never gonna happen.

And, who can believe that a city government which doesn't even try to enforce emissions laws on the outrageously polluting vehicles on the streets today is gonna eliminate them completely on Seventh Ave? Perhaps they will require all the avenue's neighbors to use only electric cars and bicycles?

Sadly, leftist governments, like the one now supposedly running Bogotá, too often make the ideal the opposite of the doable, and end up getting nothing done. Fortunately, the Polo Democratico Party which is now running the city will be out of office by the end of the year and hopefully the next mayor will choose something more realistic.

Close to finding Atlantis? Preliminary excavations have turned part of Ave. Septima into a huge pit. 

A city employee wears a mask against fumes. 

A first step toward a green city: enforcing pollution laws.

By Mike Ceaser, of Bogotá Bike Tours

A Stroll Along El Septimazo

Each Friday evening at 5 p.m. Seventh Ave. closes to cars between Plaza Bolivar and Independence Park. Seventh becomes a people's avenue and fills with evangelicals, vendors, street artists and singers. (Sadly, as of April 2011, the city has suspended El Septimazo - supposedly because it causes too much trouble. I suspect it's because it inconveniences drivers.)

Cars gone, Seventh Ave. fills with people.

These 'gladiators for God' were evangelicizing against sin, money - and against other evangelicists, whom they accused of being in it for the money. And, they were evangelicizing in English, despite being regulars on La Jimenez.

A block north, these folks were talking about celestial beings. Perhaps I've got a ticket to Mars awaiting me. Beside them, a group of reformed gangsters were rapping for God.

Kid cops line up, ready to turn out to keep order. These high school students, armed with nightsticks, are doing part of their obligatory police/military duty. 

Jugglers warming up. 

Afro-Colombian musicians.

Three blind people make their way through the crowd.

Chess players don't let the crowds break their concentration. 

Your name etched on a grain of rice!

Juggling.

Man meets monster!

The Septimazo is a big bazarre. Here, cell phone chargers for sale. 

Afro-Colombian players. 

Sidewalk portraits. 

Am I as pretty on paper?

The crowd watching a puppet show. 

A pavement artist. 

Encircled!

 Trapped!

Vendors fill the sidewalks with books...

Until the cops come to clear away this scourge on society.

Even on a damp night, the street really filled up!

By Mike Ceaser, of Bogotá Bike Tours