The Other Urban Natures

THE ILLUSION of excess has finally gone off with the global economic crisis. In cities there is now a need to think on the reasons that led us to a point where the debauchery and waste generated only a sumptuous emptiness, material and ideological.

This affected the growth and shaping of cities, and now we need a real and transcendent change, to affirm from a reactive posture that we abandon the idea that “a society of wealth is a society in which all material and cultural needs meet easily”, leaving behind dysfunctional social logic that has condemned us to a “luxurious and spectacular famine”. In this sense, the public space and its proper management is crucial for the rectification of the urban nature of any contemporary city. The cities of Baja California Sur have based its development in an obsolete model of urban development FONATUR institutionalized in the 60’s.

Among other deficiencies, the local leisure facilities (for people who actually live in these tourist destinations) are always last on the list. The shortsightedness of cities and federal governments left us with mediocre private efforts which aimed more at mass consumption spaces than mass leisure areas.

In these lines we will mention the exercise of urban “acupuncture” that was recently carried out in the city of La Paz. At the beach water park Coromuel, located in front of Pedregal de la Paz, the city has recovered one of the largest and more traditional leisure spaces in the area, transforming it with a clear intention of creating quality public space, to exploit a situation presented by Urban Nature.

This intervention includes the increase of capacity of the beach area for up to 2,500 people, a quay of 115 meters which is the pinnacle of the pier, 36 palapas, 263 palms, a treatment plant with capacity of 90 thousand liters of water daily, walkways and ramps, 100 parking spaces, 6 sanitary units, public lighting, water tank, restaurant, outdoor theater and 28 store spaces.

While noble, and widely accepted by local residents, the Coromuel water park is a shy demagogic effort to generate public space. Still, the project, as many others we encounter around us, is not taking proper advantage of good situations presented by the Urban Nature. The space could among others generate its own power by solar panels that could educate people in the use of “public space”. Besides that this could be the starting point of a process of “socialization” of La Paz (or even the State) being the first intervention of a systematic and planned renovation of public spaces that is strongly needed all around Baja Sur. The nature around us is rich and offers plenty of entertainment, energy and sustainable resources. We should use them wisely and learn how to blend them into the public space, in order to be able to give back to the society and the nature itself.