Blogs :: The Slums of Panama City
You show up in Panama City and from the word go the modern nature of the city is in your face. You look at the skyline and see the high-rises with apartments starting at a quarter of a million dollars. Anywhere you look it seems you can find an upscale shopping mall to pander to all your materialistic needs. Apple stores are about as common in the city as ATM's. You can see the massive amount of construction that is making these structures multiply. Anywhere you look it is easy to be deceived by the amount of money that has been poured into the city itself. Once you are off the beaten path you begin to realize that there is a much different side to the city itself.
Casco Viejo has a history within Panama City. It is the second of three rebuilds that the city has gone through and possibly holds the most colonial culture in the city itself. Way back when after the Spanish decided that they were going to rape and pillage as much of Central and South America as humanly possible Panama City was established as a major artery to bring the plunders of their conquests to Spain from South America. The first of the cities was Panama Viejo. Panama Viejo now stands as stone ruins on the north side of the modern city. The cathedral tower stands as a monument to a city that was sacked an destroyed in its entirety by Henry Morgan in 1671. The ruins are now protected by the government and are a huge tourist attraction.
After picking up the pieces Panama City was moved to what is known as Casco Viejo. This place is the colonial heartbeat of the city to this day but for a time was basically abandoned by the affluent for the allure of the modern city. Casco Viejo quickly slid into a series of slums that were dangerous and a threat to the developing tourism industry of Panama.
Casco Viejo became one of the worst and run down parts of the city until the government realized the cultural and tourist gems that dotted this peninsula. Two years ago they started a very ambitious rejuvenation project that was aimed at bringing it back into the limelight of the tourism industry. Rightly so too, the entire area is littered with magnificent churches, governmental buildings, colonial architecture, convents, museums, and much more. It likely contains the most heritage in all of Panama City. The Colonial buildings mark the last that have been spared by the expansion of the modern city. The Churches stand in defiance to the years of neglect, the neoclassical meets colonial, and of course like any tourist attraction the poor are being pushed out to make room for a playground.
This is the downside of this area. Once considered a slum it was heavily populated by people that make less than minimum wage and worry constantly about being able to eat their next meals. They lived in one of the oldest, most densely populated, and dangerous neighborhoods of Panama City. There is a distinct line that separates the barrio from what is now a major tourist attraction. One side of the street is restored buildings and the next block is run down shanties. This is the area that the hotel tells you not to walk even during the day (I walked). People sleep in the streets and the buildings are collapsing. This is a place that represents the war zones of the Eastern Bloc that you see on TV.
The question I pose here is at what point does tourism begin to become detrimental to an area. In this case Casco Viejo has been recovered for the benefit of a huge industry at a very large price to the government. They have effectively pushed all of the poor and lacking population to an even smaller part of the city. Population density in these areas has shot up and crime is an every day ordeal. At what point do you start thinking about the least fortunate demographic of a city and not about the people that want to see a church on their holiday? It is the same in any city in the world that attempts "Urban Renewal." Ambitious policies like the Broken Window policy don't stop crime or reduce it. They simply move it to a different place. The poor neighborhoods get poorer and more dangerous because people cannot afford the cost of living in their old areas and are required to move and continue the vicious cycle.
Now I realize better than anybody that we don't live in a perfect world and projects such as these are an important part of economies around the world but at what point can a city that badly needs the tourism take a serious look at the impacts that it has on their least acknowledged demographic.
Panama City, Panama
Posted By:
Jason
2/3/2009