University of Stuttgart

Dipl.-Volksw. Angelika Krehl, Dipl.-Geogr. Stefan Fina

Summer Term 2013

The Case of the Historic Center of Quito: Chronicle of a

Gentrification Foretold

Alexandra Velasco

Master course in Infrastructure Planning

Email: alexa@movere.ec

Seminar Report

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ABSTRACT “The case of the historic center of Quito: Chronicle of a gentrification foretold” is an

analysis of the revitalization plan of the historic center prepared by the local and

national government intended to be launched up to 2017 and its possible outcomes in

the social structure of the local residents. By taking a look at other renewal projects for

historic centers that already occurred in Latin America and its outcomes, and reviewing

several urban theories regarding this concept, it concludes that a gentrification process

is very likely to occur. The large public investment for infrastructure and services

projects, mainly for housing and tourism, the private business sector with its local

interests and the social displacement due to the attraction of new middle and upper

class dwellers, are some of the facts that support this thesis.

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TABLE OF CONTENTS 1. INTRODUCTION ............................................................................................. 4 2. GENTRIFICATION IN LATIN AMERICAN HISTORIC CENTERS ........... 5 3. THE HISTORIC CENTER OF QUITO ............................................................ 7 4. PLAN FOR THE REVITALIZATION OF THE HISTORIC CENTER ........ 11 5. ANALYSIS ..................................................................................................... 14 6. CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS .......................................... 16 7. BIBLIOGRAPHY ........................................................................................... 19 8. APPENDIX ..................................................................................................... 21 List of Figures  FIGURE 1: PANORAMIC VIEW OF THE HISTORIC CENTER OF QUITO ................................................. 8  FIGURE 2: DEMOGRAPHIC GROWING IN THE HISTORIC CENTER ..................................................... 9  FIGURE 3: THE FORMER GARCÍA MORENO JAIL ........................................................................... 10  FIGURE 4: HOUSING TENANCE IN THE HISTORIC CENTER ............................................................. 10  FIGURE 5: PROJECTS FOR LIFE´S QUALITY STRATEGIC AXIS ........................................................ 12  FIGURE 6: POSSIBLE EDIFICATIONS TO BE TOPPLED ...................................................................... 12  FIGURE 7: PROJECTS FOR INSTITUTIONAL MANAGEMENT SCOPE AREA ....................................... 13  FIGURE 8: PROJECTS FOR HERITAGE AND CULTURE STRATEGIC AXIS ......................................... 13  FIGURE 10. LOCATION OF HISTORIC CENTER IN THE METROPOLITAN DISTRICT OF QUITO ......... 21  

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The Case of the Historic Center of Quito: Chronicle of a

Gentrification Foretold

1. Introduction

The famous book of the Columbian writer Gabriel García Marquéz, “Chronicle of

a Death Foretold”, begins with Santiago Nasar´s final morning, clearly stating he is

going to be killed. Santiago's death is clearly alluded to preceding the “in-novel”

events. To some degree, an astonishing number of coincidences occurred to prevent

even those who wanted to warn Santiago from doing so; even so, the failure to prevent

Santiago's death is a failure of every individual within the society. In this way, this

essay “The case of the historic center of Quito: Chronicle of a gentrification foretold”

makes an analysis of the local and national government revitalization plan for the

historic center intended to be launched up to 2017 and its possible outcomes in the

social structure of the local residents. By taking a look in other renewal projects for

historic centers that already occurred in Latin America and its outcomes, and reviewing

several urban theories regarding the different meanings of this concept, this essay will

give some clues that support the hypothesis of a gentrification process on track.

Gentrification’, as originally coined, referred primarily to a rather different type of

‘new middle class’, buying up older, often ‘historic’ individual housing units and

renovating and restoring them for their own use — and in the process driving up

property values and driving out former, typically lower income working class residents

(Slater, 2006:744). As mentioned by Slater, gentrification needs four processes to

occur: 1) capital re-investment; 2) improvement of social conditions by higher income

social classes; 3) changes in the urban landscape and; 4) direct or indirect displacement

of lower income groups. (Salinas, 2008: 285).

Different terms as urban renewal or urban revitalization hide behind euphemistic

discourse, the increasing commodification of cities and the continuity of social

differences in a territorial scale. This process confirms that today the city is built

primarily to meet the needs of consumers with purchasing power, and that always

occurs at the expense of low-income citizens who need more protection (Smith 2011,

p: 236). This has being especially evident in the downtown areas of several cities all

over the world. Quito is no exception. In former administrations several “urban

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renewal” projects arose in many traditional neighbourhoods of the city like “La

Mariscal” or “Cumbayá” giving the land use purchase power, speculation and property

to the real-state market. Nowadays the Housing Ministry, with the support of the local

authorities, is launching a project of urban revitalization and public spaces recovery for

the Historic Center of Quito, which is the largest inhabited museum and best-

conserved core of Latin America, is a prime example of various architecture, declared

capital of the American Baroque and World Cultural Heritage by the UNESCO in

1978. This paper will analyse the aims of the project, the process for its consecution,

the stakeholders involved and the possible effects in its local inhabitants composition

due to gentrification process.

2. Gentrification in Latin American Historic Centers The process of gentrification is an international phenomenon. It is taking place

throughout North America and much of Western Europe, as well as Australia and New

Zealand (Smith, 1996: 231), and now also occurring in Latin America. But in the first

two cases, the term gives reference particularly to the transformation of different

spaces caused by services related with globalized economy and the residential use by

the “new middle class” or “creative class”. In contrast in Latin America, gentrification

in the core areas relates to a change in the functional use of the buildings, particularly

from residential to retail or other type use, highlighting restaurants, bars, discotheques,

travel agencies, boutiques and call centers. (Salinas, 2013: 286). This is launched by a

public agenda that highlights master plans for the “urban recovery” or “urban

revitalization” of the historic centers, which addresses the need to reinforce the

security, to improve public spaces and to displace street hawkers, beggars and poor

street children, most of them from indigenous origin, mainly in Quito und Guayaquil in

Ecuador (Swanson 2007, p:211) and México City (Crossa 2009, p:45). The Latin

American governments, with the aim to reactivate economics and attract foreign

investment, put large amounts of money to displace low-income populations and

“beautify” the image of historic centers. (Steel y Klaufus, 2010, p. 5). These projects of

“recovery” of the historic heritage are intended mainly to attract tourism and foreign

investment, as seen in Cuenca-Ecuador or Cusco –Perú (Steel y Klaufus, 2010),

Buenos Aires - Argentina (Gómez y Zunino, 2008), Santa Marta - Colombia and Porto

Alegre y Salvador in Brasil. For achieving this aim, Bromley and Mackie describe how

“the urban authorities in the South, inspired by zero-tolerance projects from the North,

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tried to chase away urban undesirables because they were and still are considered a

hindrance in the city’s modernization projects and do not give security and good urban

image in the public spaces”. They also describe the displacement of informal traders

from the city center of Cusco and how this has been prompted by tourism goals,

arguing that displacement of informal trading is integral to any gentrification process

of the city center. “In this way, the center of a city whose cultural heritage site is

intended to tourism may be more likely to experience gentrification” (Bromley y

Mackie, 2009: 1502). Exemplifying this policy in March 2001 the major of Cusco,

Alfonso Valencia inaugurated two modern commercial centers: ‘El Molino 1’ and ‘El

Molino 2’. Around 2000 ambulant vendors of fruit, food and petty commodity were

forced to move from their temporary market stalls on the Avenida Ejercito to this

newly erected market. Other colonial houses were transformed into shops, pubs, bars

and restaurants, raising the land, clothes and food prices. “Local people have ever less

access to the center for purposes such as living, shopping, eating out or entertainment

because of the excessive prices, which can only be paid by ‘rich’ tourists” (Steel, G.

and Klaufus, C., 2010, p:8) and “lower-class traders are displaced to provide cleared

central streets which are attractive to middle-class national and foreign tourist, as well

as to middle-class local people” (Bromley and Mackie, 2009: 1503).

Another important issue of the processes of gentrification in Latin American city

centers is that the local authorities have to deal with a strong race-class dimension.

Jones and Varley (1999) argue that “gentrification should be approached as a source of

identity formation, in which the local middle classes try to gain moral authority over

the working classes and over popular culture alike”. So this has caused multiple

struggles of control and ownership in the urban spaces of the city centers of Cuenca

and Cusco. In Cuenca, for example, El Ejido, a garden-city borough, with very typical

neo-vernacular architectural style, named Arquitectura Cuencana, shows strong social -

class struggle between the cultural elites (pro-heritage conservation activists), the

economic elites (investors, real estate developers) and the “migrantes”, a low cultural

status group with rural mestizo background, who succeeded to improve their economic

position through transnational migration and remittance sending. Gentrification in El

Ejido is not about the displacement of working class residents in a strict sense, but

about old and new upper-class families who try to exclude each other, as well as

working-class ‘migrantes’ who have worked their way up. All of them bought

apartments in the new condominiums or recycled the old houses with new economic

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entrepreneurships. Nevertheless the real state offers for new upper-class families differ

strongly from those targeted to the migrants, although they have the money to invest.

“The working class is barred from the city center through active and passive forms of

discrimination. As said by Similar to the Vancouver case where moral and ideological

conflicts over the physical changes in the built environment were intertwined with issues of

race, class, cultural identity and citizenship, gentrification in Cuenca is linked to the

cultural codes associated with specific social classes. The working class in this case is not

expelled but immobilized.” (Steel, G. and Klaufus, C., 2010, p:17).

3. The historic center of Quito  

As stated in different websites and touristic guides, the historic center of Quito is

the biggest and best-preserved colonial core of South America. Although Quito

appears officially founded in 1534 by the Spanish, it already existed several years

before the European conquest in the current location of the historic center. Quito was a

re-established settlement conferred by the Incas, that also conquered and settled over

the Quitus – Caras, ancestors living along the Andes Mountains in different valleys.

When the Spanish came, they evicted or killed the former inhabitants and settled in

their buildings. This gave a special characteristic to its morphology and urban

structure, expressed in scattered open spaces, big buildings and high-densities housing

projects.

“The center of Quito is built upon a reticular and orthogonal structure, with equidistant

axes that are approximately 100 meters apart […]. This structure is present, in different

scales and intensities, as much in the main religious buildings –such as San Francisco’s

or Santo Domingo’s Monasteries – as it is in the basic residential units in which most

historic blocks are subdivided. Quito’s core is a harmonic and homogeneous urban

fabric, where some specificities emerge from the suppression of some of the blocks

and the subsequent appearance of large public spaces around which the main religious

and civil buildings gather” (Correa, F: 2012: 5).

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FIGURE 1: PANORAMIC VIEW OF THE HISTORIC CENTER OF QUITO1

(Source: compiled by the author)

The historic center of Quito changed from an aristocratic borough during the

Spanish colonization and the republican period (1700 – 1930) into a set of poor

boroughs (1930 – 1990) when the rich families left their houses due to the increased

commercial activities on the first floor of their houses, and moved to the north of Quito

(See Appendix, Figure 9). Most of these families did not sell their houses, but rented

them to immigrants coming from the countryside attracted by the racing “oil boom”

economies in the large cities of Ecuador. The government institutions like the

Government Palace, the Municipality, the Ministry of Defense and other public

buildings remained in the core site. One fact of significant importance is, without any

doubt, the declaration of the historic center as a world cultural heritage site by the

UNESCO in 1978. It caused several public and social stakeholders, national and

foreign actors, to launch different programs, plans and interventions for the

preservation of the heritage in the old city. For example, during the first decade of 21st

Century the former Major Paco Moncayo removed street vendors from the Ipiales Av.

to peripheral malls in the downtown in a long process of negotiation between the

                                                                                                               1  In the back the hill with the virgin on the top is “El Panecillo” (the Little pumpkin) and the snowy mountain is the Cotopaxi Volcano

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Municipality and the merchants associations. This project enabled private investors to

locate their business such as luxurious hotels and restaurants in some colonial houses

that were previously merchant’s shops. According to Demon, it created an artificial

situation dividing the historic center into a renewed inner core with poor boroughs in

the periphery. “A island of beauty was created in the middle of a region of poor

populations”. (Demon, 2012:172). This is evident in some parts of the old city where

street vendors, delinquency and prostitution still sojourn. Nonetheless, the commercial

and political activities continue in the historic center, causing around 300.000

commuters to break through its narrow streets or stay there every day.

For the Ministry of Housing Development of Ecuador (MIDUVI) the historic

center is suffering a diminishing local population and the reduction of the housing use.

The land use is predominantly for housing (57.6%) , most of them given in rent. The

main economical activity is retail businness (31.4%) followed by public administration

sector and tourism. Around 60% of the private-ownership heritage buildings are in the

process of deterioration. The sewage system and other infrastructure networks need

urgent repair and replacement and the incorporation of new technology (MIDUVI

2012).

FIGURE 2: DEMOGRAPHIC GROWING IN THE HISTORIC CENTER

(Source: MIDUVI 2013)

The Jail Number Two (former García Moreno Jail), the large and popular

market San Roque and the station transfer La Marín, all of them, are incompatible with

the soul of the Historic Center, according to the MIDUVI and the Municipality of

Quito. There are also problems of accessibility and traffic, security and bad state of

public spaces.

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Beginnings of the 20th Century

Nowadays

 

FIGURE 3: THE FORMER GARCÍA MORENO JAIL2 (source: Rafael Racines Cuesta Archives)

According to the MIDUVI the 99% of the sewage system is in

obsolescence and 17.4% of the private houses are in a bad state. Only 39.2% of

the houses could be considered as in a good state. There is also an increas in the

one-flat apartments (38.7%) and rented rooms in the big historical houses. The

26% of families live in houses of two or more stocks. There is also a part of the

whole offer of housing that is unoccupied (10.4%) and 25.4% has public toilets.

(Miduvi, 2013).

FIGURE 4: HOUSING TENANCE IN THE HISTORIC CENTER

(Source: MIDUVI 2012)                                                                                                                2  Today called: Jail Number 2  

4.604  units,  28%  

1.264  units,  8%  10.347  

units;  64%  

Housing in the Historic Center

OWNED

BORROWED AND SERVICES

RENT AND ANTICHRESIS

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So in general, the MIDUVI and the local government see, as the main

problems, the lack of coordination between the different stakeholders of the

historic center and that a part of the local inhabitants are living in extreme

poverty conditions.

4. Plan for the Revitalization of the Historic Center For addressing the above mentioned problems, the MIDUVI in coordination with

the Municipality, launched an urban intervention plan last year for the historic center to

transform it as “a vibrant core of our identities and cultural and historical heritage for

the world, a contemporary place to live, work and enjoy in harmony with the

environment, and as a world reference for historic centers management”. (MIDUVI,

2012). In this context, four strategic actions have been formulated to achieve the main

objectives:

1) To implement a master plan that allows the HC to be a worldwide reference

and foster an emergency program with emblematic actions

2) To launch new management mechanisms guarding the institutional autonomy

3) To intervene in the preservation and use of the heritage, including a social and

economic approach

4) To invest in the improvement of the life conditions of vulnerable population

These strategies are addressed in 3 core frameworks: 1) Quality of Life, 2)

Institutional Management and 3) Heritage and Culture. All these 3 axes gather long-

term projects, to be performed till 2017 and several short-term emergent projects,

called emblematic interventions that should be launched up to 2014. In the first scope

area (Life´s quality) the main projects are new functional road planning, renewal of

public spaces, new functions for public buildings as embassies and international

organisms, demolition of 12 edifications which do not correspond to the colonial

architecture for opening new squares and the recovery of inner courtyards. (Figure 6,

MIDUVI 2012).

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FIGURE 5: PROJECTS FOR LIFE´S QUALITY STRATEGIC AXIS (Source: compiled by the author; data from MIDUVI 2012)

FIGURE 6: POSSIBLE EDIFICATIONS TO BE TOPPLED

(Source: MIDUVI 2012)

The second strategic scope area is the institutional management, in which the

main objectives are 1) to strength the urban control and to insure a normative

framework for a new form of management; 2) to launch a financial sustainability plan

and promote private investment; and 3) to invest for life quality´s improvement of

vulnerable population (MIDUVI 2012).

Long-term Projects (up to 2017) Emergent Projects Scope Strategic Action

Life´s Quality

Housing Credits for popular housing

Improvement of buldings, facades, 3.000 housing

certificates

Infrastructure and Public Services Public Lighting sewage, power supply,

road network maintenance

New Buildings and Public Space

Cumandá Park, San Lárazo University

Heritage buildings for embassies, relocation of

Jail and San Roque Market

Security Improvement of ECU 911

Relocation of dysfunctional buildings

Mobility and Transportation

Network

Intervention Marín-Trébol Cumandá

ring road

Non-motorized transport, less private cars,

peripheral parking lots

Environment Underground dumps

Alternative solid waste collection, reforestation

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 FIGURE 7: PROJECTS FOR INSTITUTIONAL MANAGEMENT SCOPE AREA

(Source: compiled by the author; data from MIDUVI 2012)

The third and last strategic scope area deals with the heritage and culture issues. It

reinforces the mechanisms to preserve the heritage buildings and strength of the

cultural heritage development. Also a communications and educational program is part

of the aims of this area.

FIGURE 8: PROJECTS FOR HERITAGE AND CULTURE STRATEGIC AXIS

(Source: compiled by the author; data from MIDUVI 2012)    

The total budget designated for the short-term projects is USD $83.280.550,00

(45%) from which USD $36.230.550,00 comes from the Municipality of Quito, USD

$37.050.000,00 (44%) from the national government and USD $10.000.000,00 (12%)

from private investment. For the long-term projects the total invested amount is USD

Long-term Projects (up to 2017) Emergent Projects Scope Strategic Action

Institutional Management

Urban Regulation and Control

Special Group for urban control of

image and facades

Zero Tolerance Plan, expediting

procedures, specialized

controls

Economic Sustainability

Popular Solidarity Entrepreunirship,

promotion for private

investments and tourists

Economic development program and promotion of investments

Social Sustainability and

Integration

Strengthening the quarry project for

sex workers

relocation of sex workers, attention plan for beggars

Long-term Projects (up to 2017)

Emergent Projects Scope Strategic Action

Heritage and Culture

Tangible and Intangible cultural

heritage Heritage Inventory

Update Refunctioning

Public Buildings, preservation

religious buildings and museums

Communication, Marketing and

Education

Education Programme for

Heritage Preservation

Communications and Education Plans

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$675´200.000, from which USD $264´900.000 are from the Municipality of Quito

(40%), USD $318´550.000 (47,2%) from the national government and USD

$91´750.000 (12,8%) from the private sector. In conclusion, the final budget for all the

masterplan of revitalization is USD $758`480.550 during five years.

5. Analysis  

The Historic Center of Quito is without any doubt one of the most important living

heritages of Ecuador and South America, a testimony of the colonial architecture and

also a mixture of different social classes and racial groups living and/or working in the

same space. Reading the whole revitalization plan there are new approaches like

environment, citizen participation and mobility, that were not take into account in the

former administrations (Innovar UIO 2007, p:1-5). The life´s quality scope area is the

most favoured in economic terms, meaning that infrastructure and physical

interventions are the priority of the revitalization plan (USD $481´300.000). The social

inclusion area is of lower importance in the whole project with a budget of USD

$15´900.000, designated especially for the relocation of sex workers and attention to

beggars.

In this way, and regarding the experiences of other Latin American cities (Cuzco,

Cuenca, Buenos Aires), where gentrification processes were accompanied by public

investment and private business in infrastructures and services, we can argue that

gentrification could also occur in the historic center of Quito due to the following facts:

1) The high percentage of public funding for private real estate projects (USD

$50´000.000 from a total of USD $121´750.000 for housing) compared with 4.000

popular certificates of USD $5.000 each one, for housing projects in the historic center

(USD$ 24´000.000). Currently, the price of each square meter is between USD $250

and $500 (Olx.com.ec: 2013), but in some renewed boroughs like San Marcos in the

east, it is not a surprise to find an apartment of 115m2 in USD $112.000 (Nexos

inmobiliarios: 2013). Although in the plan appears the certificate for low – incomers,

the housing projects points to middle– class dwellers as stated by the Metropolitan

Director of Heritage, Ana Lucía Armijos. In one of the most deprived and marginalized

sectors of the historic center, the Av. 24 de Mayo, three housing projects built by

MIDUVI “try to offer better housing options for its inhabitants as well to attract new

inhabitants of middle class of other zones of the city” (La Clave, 2012). Therefore, the

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municipality has enough power and discretion to choose the objects of investment and

its beneficiaries. As Fainstein states, “Capital investments by city governments are

intended to support development projects rather than improve the quality of peripheral

neighborhoods, and rezoning for higher densities occurs in response to developer

demands for more profitable investment opportunities.” (Fainstein, 2009: 1). On a

deeper level apparently the aim of the municipality is to re-settle the historic center

bringing middle and high-class dwellers but there is no plan to integrate them with

local residents. In words of Butler “It values the presence of others — that much has

been seen from the quotations from respondents — but chooses not to interact with

them. They are, as it were, much valued as a kind of social wallpaper, but no more.”

(Butler, 2003: 2484).

Another important project that should be taken into account for the potential

change of the historic center’s social structure is the location of a branch of an upper-

class university (UDLA – Universidad de las Américas) in the former psychiatric

hospital San Lázaro in the southwest part of the historic center. In the eyes of

democracy and tolerance it could be seen as a good policy for social integration and

mixture of classes. Nevertheless, is very unlikely that the students socialise with the

local residents, eat or talk with them. Moreover, as seen in other parts of Quito where

universities are located in residential areas, the increase of pubs, restaurants and bars

for student´s consumption could also occur in this area of Quito. In first instance it is

good because it will bring economic revival and maybe job opportunities, but in terms

of social inclusion it is very likely that the local residents would not use these services

due to the higher prices of foods, beverages and shops targeting the students’ pocket.

In the same way, a few days ago the MIDUVI and the Ministry for Foreign Affairs

invited several embassies and international organisms to an important event showing

the location of heritage houses available for their activities. (Ministry for Foreign

Affairs, 2013). It could be predicted that a change in the local space will occur due to

the new needs for security and concomitant exclusion and services related to this kind

of buildings and users. “The displacement or replacement is often neither direct nor

immediate, but the process remains ‘gentrification’ because the space is being

transformed for more affluent users.” (Slater 2006, p:744).

As already showed in the Cusco case, there is a similarity in one of the projects of

the institutional management scope area and the aim of strengthening the urban

control. A zero-tolerance project with USD $2´500.000 will try to chase away urban

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undesirables because they do not give security and good urban image in the public

spaces.

Finally, the national government and novel experts wants to truly believe that

development cannot be stopped and neither changes in the structure of society or the

type of tourists coming to the Historic Center. As said by Julio Rivas, an tourist guide

in the historic center: “It is not only important the number of tourists, but the quality of

them”, referring to a very specific targeted tourist, that one who pays expensive rooms

in the luxurious (existing or potential) hotels located in the downtown, who eats in

expensive restaurants and who expects security, high-quality services and richly

colonial architecture and folklore signs of the heritage. (BBC, 2013). Taken into

account one of the five faces of oppression stated by Young3, at least cultural

imperialism and marginalization could occur even if not yet occurring in the historic

center of Quito. This would keep out the discussion about the symbolic value of the

heritage, what it really means for the local townsfolk and for the local government,

focusing only in the attraction of foreign tourists and not in the local residents that live

and work in the historic center.

6. Conclusions and Recommendations

Coming back to the book of García Marquéz, “Chronicle of a Death Foretold”, the

townsfolk desperately wanted to believe that the death was truly "foretold," due to the

many signs pointing to it. This essay intends to make an analogy comparing the

“signs” of the MIDUVI revitalization plan that could lead to a gentrification process in

advance. In the name of preservation of the heritage, the public opinion is guided to

think that the intended interventions such as the introduction of new novelty uses like

embassies or a upper-class university are necessary for attracting dwellers to the

diminishing population of the historic center. Also the demolition of “non-compatible”

buildings is part of the recovery of the colonial architecture and the “natural habitat”.

The velocity of renewal and the loss of roots are part of the new language of

neoliberal urbanism, as stated by Carrión (F. Carrión, 2000, p:15). The economical

interests are above the heritage value, disregarding the value of memory and territory.

                                                                                                               3  Young describes five faces of oppression: exploitation, marginalization, powerlessness, cultural imperialism and violence. (See Young, I.M (1990) Justice and the politics of difference)  

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This also is part of the crisis of urban planning, whose consequences are evident in the

creation of the “great urban projects” (GPU)4, serving mainly to the market and real

estate (F. Carrion 2000, p:30). This language is also evident in the whole proposal

diminishing or hiding the great potential of local dwellers to strength and races the

living standards in the historic center if they had the opportunity and the credits to do

so.

Knowing that the Ecuadorian society is still classist (as showed in the Cuenca

study) and expresses huge gaps between rich and poor, class conflict and involuntary

displacement of local residents is very likely to occur in the historic center. People will

move not because they do not like the gentrification around them, but rather because

there will be no alternatives available to them in a tight housing market (Slater 2006,

p:749). The housing projects of the national government could be overshadowed by the

real estate projects in some peripheral boroughs. In words of Neil Smith, gentrification

could occur due to the created hierarchies of power between gentrifiers and the

homeless, and the emergence of deep tensions along the major social fault-lines of

class, gender, ethnicity, race and religion, lifestyle and place - bound preferences.

(Harvey 1992, p:420).

It is also worrying that in the different public debate and social networks nothing

has been said about gentrification, rent increases or affordable housing crises, as one of

the outcomes of the revitalization plan. The discussion between architects, citizens and

local authorities remains in the demolition of a few modern edifications in the core

area. Nothing is said about gentrification as an expression of urban inequality. In this

sense, academics and the mass media have a role to play in exposing the serious side-

effects of gentrification for the local population structure and economy, even for the

current problems the municipality is trying to face with this project.

The revitalization plan could shift to a more democratic and socially inclusive plan

if a more public participatory approach and not only relocation programmes of

undesirable social groups are launched. “If city politics is to be democratic and not

dominated by the point of view of one group, it must be a politics that takes account of

and provides voice for the different groups that dwell together in the city without

forming a community” (Young, 1990: 227). In this way, the plan should be

transformed into a city project in which “public investment and regulation would

produce equitable outcomes rather than support those already well off” (Fainstein,

                                                                                                               4 GPU: grandes proyectos urbanos (Great urban projects)

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2009: 3). Only the understanding by the local authorities that a urban development

project by itself in an specific territory could not change a deeper problem of inequity

and scarce access to housing, job, health or education, would produce the intended

outcomes of the plan, that is the vision of ·a vibrant core of our identities and cultural

and historical heritage for the world, a contemporary place to live, work and enjoy in

harmony with the environment”.

  19  

7. Bibliography

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Carrión, Fernando. (2000). Lugares o flujos centrales: los centros históricos urbanos. Serie 29 Medio Ambiente y Desarrollo. CEPAL-Naciones Unidad, Santiago de Chile.

Correa, Felipe. (2012) A Line in The Andes, (1st Ed.). Harvard University Graduate School of Design. 2012

CROSSA, V. (2009) Resisting the Entrepreneurial City: Street Vendors’ Struggle in Mexico City’s Historic Center. International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, vol. 33.1, p. 43-63.

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Fainstein, S. (2010) The Just City. New York. Cornell University Press.

Gómez, M. y Zunino, D. (2008) Políticas de Cultura y Turismo: Desplegando el City Marketing. El caso de la ciudad de Buenos Aires. Available at ANPUR: http://www.anpur.org.br/revista/rbeur/index.php/anais/article/view/3091/3026, accessed: 1st June, 2013, 1-15.

HARVEY, D. (1992), Social Justice, Postmodernism and the City. International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, 16: 588–601. doi: 10.1111/j.1468-2427.1992.tb00198.x

Janoschka, Michael. Las políticas de gentrificación en América Latina. Una revisión

crítica de las políticas urbanas contemporáneas. Universidad Autónoma de Madrid

Innovar UIO, Former Enterprise for Urban Development for Quito. Final report of

activities. Available at INNOVAR: https://www.google.de/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=4&cad=rja&ved=0CEcQFjAD&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.ciudadaniainformada.com%2Ffileadmin%2Fpdf%2FInnovar_definitivo.doc&ei=1Ua3UaGmHcXBtQbD4oCwDg&usg=AFQjCNHqTcwDEvD8l0qWw50gw5iCOn6hLg&sig2=C03xNGfkQpNFfG42d9hbSA, (Accessed: 1st June, 2013)

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conservation and gentrification in Puebla, Mexico. Environment and Planning A, vol. 31(9), p. 1547-1566.

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La Clave Magazine. (2012) New plans to revitalize the heritage. Available at: http://www.clave.com.ec/index.php?idSeccion=776 (Accessed: 13th June, 2013).

Ministry of Housing and Municipality of Quito, (2012) Plan for revitalization of the historic center of Quito”. Working paper given by Architect Boris Albornoz - Sub secretary of Urban Development of the Ministry of Housing of Ecuador MIDUVI. March 2013

Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Commerce and Integration. Project of revitalization of the historic center of Quito will gather the embassies. Available at: http://cancilleria.gob.ec/proyecto-de-revitalizacion-del-centro-historico-de-quito-agrupara-a-embajadas/ (Accessed: 13th June, 2013).

NEXOS Inmobiliarios. Apartments and houses for selling in downtown of Quito. http://www.nexosinmobiliarios.com/property/55650-54337-departamento-en-ecuador-quito-pichincha-uio--centro-hist-C3-B3rico (Accessed: 13th June, 2013).

OLX.COM.EC Apartments and houses for selling in downtown of Quito. Available at: http://www.olx.com.ec/q/casa-centro-historico-de-quito/c-367 (Accessed: 13th June, 2013).

Salinas, Luis A. (2012) Gentrificación en la ciudad latinoamericana. el caso de Buenos Aires y ciudad de México. Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM). Ciudad de México (México). Available at: http://web.ua.es/es/revista-geographos-giecryal/documentos/luis-salinas.pdf?noCache=1363271617297, (accessed: 23rd May 2013).

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Steel, G. and Klaufus, C. (2010) Displacement by/for Development in Two Andean Cities. Available at: <http://lasa.international.pitt.edu/members/congress-papers/lasa2010/files/1998.pdf>. (Accessed: 25 May, 2013).

Swanson, K. (2007) Revanchist Urbanism Heads South: The Regulation of Indigenous Beggars and Street Vendors in Ecuador. Antipode, vol. 39 (4), p. 708-728.

Young, I.M. (1990) Justice and the Politics of Difference. Princenton, NJ: Princenton University Press

8. Appendix

FIGURE 9. LOCATION OF HISTORIC CENTER IN THE METROPOLITAN DISTRICT OF QUITO

(Source: in style of Correa 2012)