Santo Domingo.-After acknowledging that urban growth is uncontrollable and that over a period of time here in the world more than 50 percent of rural populations became mostly urban, the architect Franc Ortega upholds the phrase of his Brazilian counterpart Jaime Lerner: “The The city is not a problem, the city is a solution”.
The latter, was governor of the State of Paraná and three times mayor of Curitiba, led the urban revolution that gave that city renown in terms of urban planning and design, public transportation, environmental and social programs.
Specialists recognize that steps are being taken to improve transportation such as the subway.
Ortega, like the architect Juan Emilio Pérez Morales, both graduates of the Pedro Henríquez Ureña National University and long-standing professionals, agree that more than limiting or stopping this process, there is a need to improve infrastructure projects, postponed in the costly time and the discomfort they cause, in addition to the fact that they are not politically attractive, as in the case of sanitary drainage.
The lack of this facility claimed the lives of eight people in November with flooding due to flash rains. Both advocate planned and organized growth, in which regulations are met and enforced.
Massive transport
“Regarding parking and cars, in all countries of the world the position of a car is difficult while trying to provide a mass transit system, that is, metro, buses that mobilize 70 or 80 users and not the car that transports one or two people”, says Franc Ortega.
He affirms that the solution to the road chaos does not lie in creating more facilities for cars, as it would be to widen the streets that would imply declaring many properties of public utility.
He insisted that this facility is rewarded here and, on the contrary, that paradigm must be changed.
dense cities
Ortega, who was former vice president of the Dominican Society of Architecture, corroborates with Pérez Morales, that cities must be dense, since, paradoxically, horizontal expansion also generates other difficulties such as the creation of road infrastructure, sewage systems, lighting and other service requests.
“The City must be rethought, creating multiple centers in different ways, but also ordering the vertical growth that Santo Domingo is experiencing, you can have more height and free up horizontal land so that the city looks less dense and that is part of what the city council is visualizing now, a vision that I share, in the sense that they have a better coexistence and friendlier relationship”, said Juan Emilio Morales, who has more than 47 years in various types of buildings, and defends the actions of the municipality .
proposals
Morales understands that densities should be limited, but should not be so restricted as to force horizontal development to be stimulated.
Likewise, it maintains that the city councils and the central government diagnose and create centers in sectors such as Los Mina so that those places have markets, shops, stores, study centers, universities and government structures, so that people do not have to move to the city center.
He ponders that the State is understanding the collectivization thing.
“The solution is the efficiency of public transport,” reflected Franc Ortega, who also believes that being the most compact city improves energy, garbage collection and other issues.
Both experts agree on the need for greater investment in water systems, treatment plants to avoid contaminating the subsoil, improve sewerage and promote a short, medium and long-term plan between the municipalities, the central government and entities linked to the problem. since this is not the only developing country with this problem.
land use
50% of the world population is urban.
This brings greater demand for services and requires betting on mass transportation.
