Havana’s Collapsed Buildings and Urban Migration

Havana's Collapsed Buildings and Urban Migration
November 11, 2013
Regina Cano

HAVANA TIMES — Hurricane season is almost over in Cuba, but the mere
mention of a hurricane is enough to inspire fear among many residents of
Havana, who have experienced the continuous, day-long or afternoon rains
and the strong sunlight that afterwards dries everything quickly.

These processes bring about the by now familiar collapse of buildings or
make some of the older constructions in Havana uninhabitable. Many of
these buildings were built with materials that have been worn down in
the course of time and have seen no maintenance in many, long years.

This is no news to anyone who lives in Havana. Not everyone knows,
however, that this situation leads to the forced migration of these
populations to other parts of town. It was thanks to this, in fact, that
many residents of Old Havana arrived at my neighborhood, Alamar (once
hailed as the "City of the Future"), with very little interest in staying.

These people, however, were fortunate enough to be assigned apartments
for their families – one for each family unit that had formed within
their former household, where different generations, life goals and
habits co-existed in overcrowded conditions.

Well, folks, in its efforts to keep those who had lost their homes at
this end of town, the government offered the relocated families
benefits, some of which weren't even enjoyed by the locals.

In the area of the housing project made up by the buildings they were
assigned, the government set up a pharmacy, a small grocery store, a
medical clinic, a bakery, public phones (which, given their location,
also benefited us) and a reliable water supply (something they were not
at all used to).

Offering them these basic conditions was the least they could do to have
them accept living in the neighborhood known as the "Bedroom City" (most
residents of Alamar work in the city center), after living in an area of
town where "everything" was within hand's reach.

At first, they were upset and resisted the idea, in spite of their
previous agreement. They would constantly complain about the public
transportation there and about how far stores were. Alamar had been
practically forsaken (a situation which the self-employed have improved
to some measure), while, in Old Havana, it "sufficed to walk down the
steps of one's building or open the door" to find what one needed for
the house.

The scars that living in overcrowded conditions left in their behavior,
which did not heal that quickly, came to worsen the situation.

Through such displacements, Old Havana's population decreases, and,
instead of repairing the damaged buildings so that their former
residents, who have lost the neighborhood they know and like, can return
there, the tendency is to take advantage of such depopulation to build
new stores and parks.

Many of those relocated have adapted to life in Alamar and its
half-urban, half-rural environment over time. They have also had
children who, despite their parents' dissatisfaction, already belong to
the neighborhood.

Source: "Havana's Collapsed Buildings and Urban Migration - Havana
Times.org" - http://www.havanatimes.org/?p=99966