The “Adopt a Balcony” campaign funded by private firms has led to the restoration
of 300 colonial balconies in Lima’s historic centre. |
Although not a metropolis
every urban planner would dream of, Lima no longer has the dubious title of one of
Latin America’s dirtiest and most polluted cities
 Nobody
who strolled through the centre of Lima in the 1980s could have imagined that some
day the Peruvian capital would be called a “garden city”. Air and noise pollution,
lack of public services (public toilets, proper lighting), traffic chaos, vandalism
and the invasion of the city centre by thousands of street vendors drove out not
only tourists and private businesses but local residents who only ventured there
to go to work.
In June 1989, a group of urban planners, architects, historians, artists and art
critics decided to set up the Lima Foundation, a private, non-political, non-profit
organization to save the old city centre. “We all had jobs in the historic centre
and could see how it was really going downhill,” says journalist Augusto Elmore.
The Foundation’s first victory was getting the city centre onto UNESCO’s World Heritage
List in 1991. This enthused public opinion and spurred the city authorities to embark
on a far-reaching renovation programme in the mid-1990s with the Foundation’s help
and support. “Historic city centres are places where culture, tourism and economics
can rub shoulders, and their restoration must benefit all social classes and foster
a spirit of unity,” says urban sociologist Gladys Chavez.
Those in charge of the programme took this to heart and reckoned that revamping the
centre would have a beneficial effect on the rest of the city, which is home to eight
million people (a quarter of the country’s population). They focused on renovating
116 blocks covering 123 hectares and including 570 monuments–baroque churches, Renaissance
mansions, universities and convents, all of them examples of Spanish urban colonial
architecture.
The programme borrowed ideas from earlier plans to restore Havana, Mexico City and
Quito–all of whose historic centres are World Heritage sites–and was a joint effort
by local authorities, civil society and the private sector. “The Foundation drafted
renovation projects and passed them on to government bodies–the city authorities,
the National Cultural Institute and the urban investment fund–for execution,” says
Juan Günther, the 63-year-old architect in charge of the Foundation’s projects.
Traffic
control
One of the
first measures taken was to reorganise street trading. “To get to the Plaza José
de San Martin square, in the centre, pedestrians and motorists had to weave their
way through thousands of vendors, who either had stalls or laid out their wares and
their knick-knacks on the pavement and in the road,” says Elmore. Today, you can
get through the streets more easily, because only officially licensed street vendors
are allowed into the centre and many of the others have been moved into shopping
galleries outside the old city centre.
Another priority was tackling air and noise pollution. “Anyone who works in the centre
suffers from it every day,” says Günther. “It gives me a sore throat and a lot
of my colleagues get skin rashes.” So the traffic system in the centre was changed
to limit the number of buses and taxis, which are now regulated and painted yellow.
Restoration of the main public spaces, such as the Plaza Mayor, began in 1997, along
with the renovation of churches, monuments and San Marcos University, founded in
1551 and the oldest in Latin America. “But it was more than just restoration. These
places got used for new purposes,” says Chavez. He cites the example of the Lima
Biennial Art Festival, which holds exhibitions in large aristocratic mansions, as
well as schemes to encourage local tourism such as the “Return to the Centre” campaign
and the renovation of the Chinese quarter.
Much of the work was carried out with technical and financial assistance from UNESCO and foreign governments, such as Spain,
or with the help of Cuba. But the Foundation also lobbied the private sector, and
various banks and big firms, such as the Southern mining company, the Backus and
Johnson brewery, Telefonica de Peru and Coca Cola, all of which gave money for the
renovation work. An “Adopt a Balcony” campaign to restore 300 colonial balconies
in the centre (at a cost of about $5,000 each) was funded by private firms.
Suggestions
for fighting poverty
In the past
few years, Lima residents of all classes, especially young people, have begun to
return to the centre. “We enjoy coming here now because it’s like being in a city
within a city,” say Jimena and Kike, two students crossing the Plaza Mayor.
Günther says the impression of neglect and alienation people used to feel when
they walked through the city centre is a thing of the past, but he fears the changes
might not stick. Air and noise pollution have not gone away. “Abancay Avenue, one
of the main thoroughfares, is a nightmare, with four times the maximum level of pollution
set by the World Health Organization,” he says.
But the big problem, he continues, is “social pollution” caused by petty crime in
the central area and the spread of poor housing, along with insanitary conditions
and high infant mortality. The challenge for the next few years will be to draw this
sector of the population back into society and into jobs.
Old mansions classified as historical monuments are occupied by between five and
sometimes a dozen families who pay little or no rent. But the centre is not very
densely populated because of the large number of official buildings, churches and
public spaces. The Foundation has suggested converting disused buildings into apartments
and knocking down those in very bad condition to replace them with about 90,000 new
apartments.
Moving more people into the old part of the city and improving living conditions
there will also improve the quality of businesses and make the centre more attractive
for Lima’s citizens and for tourists. “The first and most urgent task for Lima,”
says Günther, “is the economic, commercial and cultural revival of the old city.”
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