opinion

Where Panama City ought
to celebrate Carnival
by Eric Jackson

The question about where to have Panama City's Carnival celebrations may be the first and last definitive show of Bosco Vallarino's qualities as a leader and public policy maker. His declarations and publicity stunts are mostly not serious public policy statements, even if they have him defending against three different calumnia e injuria charges brought by his predecessor Juan Carlos Navarro. ('I didn't call him a narco-mayor because he's involved in the drug trade, but because someone else in his party was associated with a Colombian racketeer' has got to be the lamest defamation defense I have ever heard.) The fights he has picked or avoided with the PRD-dominated city council are also telling, but count those mostly as omissions rather than acts. It's the relatively straightforward if politically charged question of where to celebrate Carnival that has held the mayor's ineptitude as a public policy maker up for the whole world to see.

There are three main considerations about a Carnival site provision:

• How many people are inconvenienced, and to what extent?

• Where is there a place that's suitable?

• How do we deal with the various species of jerks?

The old venue, on Via España, actually wasn't that bad. It did make it kind of impossible for a lot of businesses to operate during the festivities, but most of the businesses were closed for Carnival anyway. The cost of extra security for establishments right along the route --- so that people don't come back to premises with broken windows and stinking of urine after the long holiday weekend --- is a legitimate business concern. The Via España venue is lacking for shade and places to sit down, and doesn't have a really good concert area.

The Transistmica has proven to be a terrible venue. Its main redeeming value is the ease with which police can cordon it off, but that has entailed turning residential neighborhoods into "no-go" areas and the pass system designed to deal with that has failed every time. All of the negative things about Via España, except possibly the size of the main concert area, apply to the Transistmica.

The suggestion that Carnival should be held on the Cinta Costera meets with objections from people who live in Paitilla and would get unwanted crowds and traffic jams on their streets. It also raises fears that much of the investment in the new public spaces --- newly sodded lawns, small and fragile young trees and such --- would be ruined. Because of the way that this alleged solution to the city's traffic woes was designed, a Cinta Costera Carnival would be either especially disruptive for drivers or especially dangerous for pedestrians. And will the cops make sure that the little gangsters don't bring weapons onto the site, so as to restrict the ordnance for their rumbles to the fist-sized decorative stones that the Torrijos regime so thoughtfully installed? Bosco first suggested this venue, then backed down in the face of criticism.

Then the roads and parking lots between the Albrook mall and airport, which are also bounded by the National Police headquarters and Balboa, were proposed as a Carnival site. Few residences or businesses would be adversely affected there. It would actually be good for business at the mall. Its proximity to the national bus terminal would be a great logistical advantage. That there are no shady areas, no places to sit and the most nondescript setting for parades are drawbacks, and the location next to the airport would require more than the usual coordination to make any fireworks displays safe. But alas, the Catholic Church put a monument to a late pope on the public roadway in the area, and thus would consider Carnival an activity that profanes public property that it has appropriated for its religious purposes. Such is the influence of the Catholic right-wing Opus Dei organization upon both the national and municipal governments that Bosco immediately scrapped this idea once the church objected.

Now Bosco the Clown throws up his hands in despair and abdicates his duty, calling for an expensive and impractical referendum on the Carnival venue question. We're going to have to put up with five years of this sort of nonsense? (Maybe not. Among his many lies, one of Bosco's false statements was on his cedula application, and he faces criminal charges for that. He could be removed from office, but then President Martinelli could commute his sentence and restore him to office if that happened. The question would be whether the president would be tired of this guy's antics when and if such a sentence comes down.)

Let me make my suggestion, knowing full well that several public institutions could declare it "impossible" because their leading lights feel some deep-seated need to call exclusionary dibs on their turf.

Why not have Carnival in Balboa?

For concert stage areas, you have the Balboa Stadium, the Administration Building steps, the ACP's auditorium and the Balboa Theater. Nobody really lives on El Prado anymore, and the only establishment that's open on Stevens Circle during Carnival is the Balboa post office. Allowing any sort of public parking into the area is a bad idea --- leave the parking areas at the Banco Nacional, the stadium, Stevens Circle, the Goethals Memorial and Niko's for culecos or other activities; restrict traffic in the Carnival area to just the vehicles that need to be there, and don't let people use the streets and sidewalks south of the Prado for parking either. Have parking at the lots around the Albrook Mall and on the Amador Causeway, with shuttle buses to and from the Carnival area. Have money in the budget to re-seed or re-sod any damaged lawn and replace any destroyed shrub. Have cops and ACP security guards around to keep the maleantes from vandalizing PanCanal or anybody else's property in the first place. Coordinate all fireworks displays with civil aviation authorities so as to avoid endangering people flying in and out of the airport at Albrook.

As a Carnival venue, Balboa has more places to sit down, more shade and more ready-made concert venues than any other location that has been suggested. Because the flow can be circular, the Prado offers a reasonably long yet still compact parade route, with a large grassy island for the crowds. There are no houses of worship in this Carnival area.

Gangs, people who consider it their birthright to drive and park their SUVs wherever they want, and slobs who litter? Those are human factors that must be dealt with wherever Carnival goes. That's why cops, security guards and street sweepers tend to work during Carnival. They can do their jobs in Balboa as well as anywhere else in the city. Actually, because Niko's has a contract to provide police officers' meals anyway, this venue would have certain advantages for both law enforcement and the only private business in the area that would likely have been open for business during Carnival in the first place.