Buenos Aires: A tale of two cities
Friday, December 2, 2016
Buenos Aires: A tale of two cities
By Agustina Larrea
Herald Staff
For many, Rivadavia Avenue is the dividing line between two very different versions of the same place — the thriving north and the forgotten south
“When the City government neglects our neighbourhood it has concrete consequences: our kids are dying. Literally,” says Natalia Quinto, activist and member of the La Boca neighbourhood group La Boca resiste y propone (“La Boca resists and proposes”), an organisation that was set up some years ago after the brutal murder of Gonzalo, a 15-year-old that lived in the area.
It’s Monday, it’s a holiday and the famous surroundings of Caminito — those colourful blocks in the iconic southern barrio of La Boca in Buenos Aires City — are full of tourists enjoying a warm afternoon, taking pictures with a smile and tasting traditional porteño dishes from the tables situated in the sidewalks.
Just a few blocks away, inside the La Boca Popular Library, a tiny building filled by books in the heart of the neighbourhood, Natalia and a large group are about to start a meeting to discuss some of the problems they face on a daily basis. As occurs in most of the neighbourhoods located in the south of Buenos Aires, the clustered neighbours of La Boca have to struggle with a series of challenges that a person living in the northern areas of the city, such as Núñez or Villa Urquiza, would find hard to believe.
For many, Rivadavia Avenue is the dividing-line between two very different versions of the same city: the thriving north, with beautiful buildings, the most renowned museums, the embassies and the big and tidy parks versus the forgotten south, which faces long-standing problems such as poor housing conditions, rising unemployment rates, difficulties in access to the public health system, worsening public transport, pollution — especially for those living near the Riachuelo — well, the list could go on.
More:
http://www.buenosairesherald.com/article/223949/buenos-aires-a-tale-of-two-cities
