When the residents of Carrasco Este wrote to Mayor Ricardo Ehrlich in October 2008, they met on a Monday night in the green space on General French and Bazurro streets. Keeping that small remnant of forest in a neighborhood of garden houses was their reason for joining forces, along with ten other registries of similar features that the commune had recently divided up and wanted to auction.
Today that place took the form of a 21-apartment complex, three stories high, garages, a pool, and a fenced-in perimeter. 14 years after that protest, the film repeats itself about the three patterns dressed in green that still survive the real estate development next to the fields of the Air Force.
The Municipality of Montevideo installed last week the “official auction” sign on that wooded corner between Lido and Bazurro. The auction will be next Tuesday and established a base of US$ 950,000 to get the three standards in one lot. The Land Occupation Factor (FOS) required is 25%, which means preserving a large part without building.
Photo: Leonardo Carreno.
Land between Lido and Bazurro that will be auctioned off next Tuesday by the Municipality of Montevideo
The same group of neighbors mobilized again. A few minutes before meeting on Friday afternoon, they received a call from the mayoress of Municipality E, Mercedes Ruiz, to express “all the support” for the claim. “It is a green space that we lose in a garden municipality, and what is most outrageous is that they said that the land was sold to invest in the needs of the municipality, but the money did not come,” she told hours later. The Observer.
The green terrain that resembles a forest within reach of the window is in this case the last point of a larger-scale malaise. Despite the fact that the real estate contribution of these residents –one of the highest in Montevideo– includes a additional for storm drainage -which is 10% of the urban contribution-, the pipe and storm drains were never installed in that environment, and the neighbors complain about a payment that does not entail any consideration.
“As there is no rain, when it rains, the street is absolutely devoted and flooded,” said the notary Mariana Gambetta, one of the first 31 signatures on the letter that the residents sent to the commune after learning of the auction.
The issue is that the property works as a natural drainage. “Where there was grass that absorbed water, now there will be cement,” added Mayor Ruiz. “Since I took office I have been asking for that solution; It is the area with the most expensive taxes in Montevideo and they do not have sanitation or rainwater systems”raised the hierarch, who reproached the Carolina Cosse administration for not notifying him about the auction.
Flooded streets on rainy days, due to lack of storm drains
WhatsApp groups spread photos and videos of cars that with difficulty make their way through the deep puddles that form from the rain. In a June 2019 report prepared by the Sanitation division in response to residents, the mayor’s office maintained that the case of Carrasco Este entered into the reality of 140,000 people in Montevideo who do not have sanitation, although not with the same level of urgency.
The commune maintained that both the piping works and the storm drainage works were “viable”, but at that time the neighborhood was not identified as “priority” to be carried out. On the other hand, Bola de Nieve, Villa Don Bosco, Paso de la Arena, Santa Catalina and Casabó-Rincón del Cerro were, on the outskirts of the capital and in the most impoverished populations, the same ones that will be considered in the new loan from the Inter-American Bank developmental.
“According to the schedule of works that arise from the Master Plan, the works in Carrasco Este will be carried out approximately in the year 2030”, determined the commune. “It is highlighted that the decision of when to carry out the works to universalize sanitation in Montevideo will be made by the mayor based on the prioritization criteria that the political leadership deems appropriate. Funding for the aforementioned works is not currently provided, ”he concluded.
Storm drainage, specifically, would cost $3.8 million. In fact, the residents are coordinating the issue with the director of Sanitation, Mauricio Fernández, although the works will be at the expense of the residents themselves. The mayor’s office highlighted in 2019 that the houses of Carrasco did not flood with the rains, although the streets did flood and “very frequently” the rains affected the properties of the houses.
a beloved property
Gathered in a circle in the middle of the green space in question, the neighbors impose their positions.
—These trees were small when I got here. The entire neighborhood took care of each other,” recalls Martha Schwartz, who moved to that block of Bazurro in 1977.
— My children planted a lemon tree and they came to water it. They came when they were little and it was a pleasure to see them playing,” recalls Gambetta.
—I saw on the noon news that they are going to shoot 21 de Setiembre (Pocitos) and they said how they consulted with the neighbors. Quite a show! No one has ever come to talk to us here,” complains Gonzalo Pérez del Castillo, an agronomist and writer who comes out on Friday mornings at En Perspectiva gatherings.
—Señora Marquesano (whose door opens onto the wooded property) is going to be stuck there in the house. They lied that they had warned her, and she can tell you. No one ever went to ring her doorbell,” says Gambetta.
Photo: Leonardo Carreno.
Neighbors meet in defense of the property on Lido and Bazurro
—This is not to stick with the Broad Front, because I have nothing against them, but the issue is: what is the purpose of the IM? Go gradually destroying all the typical neighborhoods of Montevideo? They destroyed the Old City, the Center too. Pocitos! 60 years ago it was a bright neighborhood,” says Pérez del Castillo.
–This plaza is not to help people who have nowhere to live, here they are going to build very expensive and luxurious buildings. The mayor’s office is going to charge fortunes for all the people who live here and nobody notified any of the neighbors. They already fit us into that building,” Gambetta laments as he points to the side.
Mayor Ruiz acknowledges that “Carrasco is ceasing to be a resort with large houses and is already having offices, buildings that do not exceed three floors and it is understandable that land is needed.” “Now, building on that point, with the drainage complication and not having a response from the IM, is not taking into account all the claims of the neighbors,” she said.
The director of Meikle Real Estate, Ignacio Albanell, already said in an interview with El País in 2018 that there had been “a very important expansion of Carrasco to the north of Avenida Italia and to the east, towards Avenida de las Américas and Parque Miramar”. “The most required are houses in secure neighborhoods and apartments,” she said.
The Observer He consulted the mayor’s office on this issue, but at press time he had not received a response.
