Neighbors report that the Urban Park is quite neglected and turned into a ‘market’

Abandoned, unmaintained and neglected in every sense of the word, is how the City park, in the capital of Santa Cruz, the space considered one of the most important lungs of the city, and worse than that, turned into a ‘market’.

These are the descriptions portrayed in a chronicle written by the journalist and former Ombudsman in Santa Cruz, Hernán Cabrera, about a walk he took in the Urban Park, the same one that ended disappointing his family.

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“Chronicle of a failed walk by the Urban Park”, that is the title with which he begins his story about the ‘disappointing’ visit to the park, a text sent to EL DEBER.

“With the hope of taking a nice walk and after many years, we dared to visit the Urban Park, but this time, accompanied by Fabian and Ariadne, curious and restless children who wanted to enjoy a sunny afternoon. It was a hot Friday and very hot.”

“At first, the disappointment, the anger; the questions, why did what we had before our eyes hurt us?: accumulated garbage, dirty children’s games and waste, bulk vendors and for all tastes, group of alcoholic and drugged young people, trees with their roots exposed and screaming for water, rotten and stinking toilets, that is, the Totally abandoned Urban Park”, narrates Cabrera.

AND continues: No maintenance work of any kind and neglected in every way. “Boo, because it is dirty and ugly, Did you tell me it was a nice, big park?” asked Ariadne, an observant and mischievous girl.

“But yes, we felt the freshness and the different air on the central promenade of the Urban Park, due to the more than 2,400 trees that are scattered in their 20 hectares, which act as a lung and a climatic factor that generates a pleasant microclimate, but which is seriously threatened by the proliferation of street vendors, the disorder, filth and lack of education of people who throw their waste anywhere they please.

He Urban Park, located between the first and second rings of Argentina and Santa Cruz avenues, covering an entire apple tree between Capitán Mariano Arrien and Teniente Mamerto Cuéllar streets, is the largest in the city from Santa Cruz de la Sierra; was designed to fulfill a fundamental role of being a lung of the city, space for recreation and walks for people, a meeting point for friends and family, in addition its corridors and paths allow walking and exercise for those who dare to do so every day. “What there is now is a market,” the journalist qualifies.

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Describe the two brick towers that adorn the Urban Park, the same ones that were built in 1996, in order to give a special touch to the Summit of the Americas. “(…) they have been left completely unusable, both serving as occasional ‘urinaries and shitters’, for those who are desperate to evacuate; in addition to furtive meetings of lovers. These towers cost the Municipality many millions of dollarsbut everything stayed in the family. The mayor was Roberto Fernández, brother of the current one, who did nothing to recover the lost money or improve this important green area,” he denounced.

According to official data, the Urban Park covers 20 hectares, has 2,400 trees of 113 species and 600 shrubs. It occupies the land that previously belonged to the National State Railway Company, where a small station was housed for the use of passengers bound for Brazil and Argentina.

“Friday afternoon was short, the children walked along the central promenade, went up to the playgrounds, saw the only dinosaur left, but he himself is dirty, torn to pieces and to distract them a little, we did little races in the middle of the garbage dumps that swarm in the Urban Park. Apparently, as they say, Bolivia is a failed state, because this was our failed and filthy walk,” he said.

In other countries, the Urban Park is the letter of presentation of their cities, where it is a pleasure to attend and enjoy each of the spaces they have. Well, the municipal government of Santa Cruz de la Sierra has the urgent task of recovering control of the urban park and converting it into what was initially thought, planned and concreted: a park for the people and for them to enjoy a different microspace, surrounded by trees, cleanliness, harmony and a healthy environment.

“The Urban Park that is under the administration of the richest municipal government in the country, It looks like a pigsty, where the people from the municipal cleaning services never go, nor do the technicians in charge of maintenance and arrangement of the municipal parks. Nor do the residents of the area mobilize or demand urgent actions, of course as long as neighborhood anomie and apathy persists, it is better for Mayor Fernández. “He is happy in the midst of the filth and chaos,” Cabrera concluded.