business & economy

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El Mercadito
De facto urban renewal

Competition by vilification and litigation loses ground
Business & Economy Briefs

De facto urban renewal

"Urban renewal," as the buzzword came to be known in land where it originated, usually has little to do with renewal. It's more a matter of removing the poor from a neighborhood, with or without specific gentrification plans for the area.

Several dozen families and a few businesses recently were removed from Santa Ana by means of a fire. There has been a lot of that going around.

The Torrijos administration does have a policy of demolishing dilapidated urban housing without an equivalent plan to relocate those who are displaced. Although the Housing Ministry (MIVI) has built a few units for working and middle class families, the unemployed and all unmarried adult males are excluded from such emergency housing assistance as there is. That's one reason why in recent years there has been a marked increase in people sleeping on the streets of our capital.

Photos and caption by Eric Jackson

The upper-end fishing boat business
Blades lashes out at tourism reporting
Will the return of traffic save Avenida Central?

El Mercadito
De facto urban renewal

Competition by vilification and litigation loses ground
Business & Economy Briefs