Asunción wants to charge for parking in its dilapidated center
To price a service, you must first provide it. What service does the Municipality of Asunción provide in the so-called historic center? Let’s see.
Pretending to park in that place is to submit to the dictatorship of the so-called “car caretakers”, who appropriate public spaces and distribute them as a business in which they go in partnership with the authorities. It is like a concession of territory in which these self-employed are absolute monarchs. Anyone who intends to park while ignoring them risks serious reprisals, because that fallacy called “car care” does not imply effective care, much less a guarantee that the vehicle is protected from scratches, looting and, ultimately, theft in broad daylight or from the night. This is known by anyone who, out of unavoidable necessity, must go to the city center and leave their vehicle on the street to carry out some procedure or fulfill any commitment.
Then, the state in which it is, urbanistically speaking, the unfortunate historic center of the capital of Paraguay. Enjoy a walk through the squares, walk its paths? Better not even think about it, because you will most likely find yourself with flooded enclaves without flooding, mountains of garbage and disorder everywhere. The inhabitant of Asuncion is not surprised by this scenario because he has had to get used to it for years. But the tourist who has just arrived in the country, goes down to breakfast, gets ready to visit the capital of Paraguay and finds himself in an abandoned, dirty city, with destroyed squares and people in tents, will think he has made the wrong destination and is in some refugees from Bangladesh or Ethiopia.
As if that were not enough, the empty and peeling public buildings show how little importance is given to the city’s building heritage. The emblem of this pathetic behavior is the building located on Mariscal Estigarribia and Iturbe where the National Archives used to function. There are Pompeii ruins that look more rosy than that unfortunate neoclassical building turned into a ghostly specter.
Back to chapter. Charge for people to park downtown? It is not only morally unacceptable but also a real assault on the pockets of thousands of people who, if it were not for necessity, would never set foot on that site abandoned by God and men.
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The entrance Pricing the abandonment was first published in The Independent.
