SAN JUAN DE LUBRIGANCHO

Once informal, San Juan de Lubrigancho (SJL) is now one of the oldest, more consolidated settlements in Lima.  It is located in the  Eastern side of the city, in an area known as Cono Este, adjacent to the main airport, and relatively close to the city center. Currently, SJL has a current population of over one million people. Following are some photographs of the older and much more consolidated areas (now regularized and formalized), as well as their own informal settlements (“pueblos jóvenes”) in the hills.

VIDEO-Driving around a now formalized area of SJL

As a way of showing interest, the local government recently began a plan, building stairs in the “pueblos jóvenes” that rest in the steeper and more difficult topography.

QUICK REMARK ON MOBILITY

I have to note that although lacking basic services, all of the informal settlements are extremely connected to the rest of the city. I was amazed at the manner through which the existing circulation systems reach the most extreme points in the city. Most of these systems are informal themselves, and as such, are quite fragmented (depending on the area and on the distances, one has to take a taxi, a bus, a convi- the equivalent of a larger van, or even a mototaxi in the most remote and mostly informal areas- similar to Thailand’s Tuk Tuks).

The Mototaxis have such an interesting presentation and decoration, that they call for a photographic study in themselves!

Currently, the city is trying to regularize its mobility system with the design and now construction of the Metropolitano (Lima’s equivalent of Bogotá’s Transmilenio- bus system) and the Tren Urbano (Metropolitan Train). It will be interesting to see how these new regular systems develop in the next years and what strategies, the government will have to adopt in order to dissipate or on the contrary, use to their advantage, the current informal systems.

VILLA EL SALVADOR

Due to the high influx of people coming from rural areas of Peru to the capital, the 1960s and 70s sparked a housing crisis. As a response, the Peruvian Government created Villa El Salvador and Villa Maria, granting thousands of homeless families small plots in a desert land south of Lima. Similar (although preceding) to the initial conditions in Ventanilla, a basic delineation of the streets and lot subdivision was offered but neither basic services nor equipments were provided, except for certain open spaces designated for equipments in the center of the larger blocks. Even with such a difficult landscape, the disconnection to the rest of the city (there was no public transportation nor connections to employment), and such harsh living conditions (the high levels of poverty, the lack of water, electricity, etc.), it seems as though the residents in Villa El Salvador have progressed quite substantially. The area is still quite bare, dirty, and chaotic, yet the houses have consolidated quite a bit.  There are still very few public spaces (the only substantial ones are located in the median of avenues), and for the most part, there is still not a defined network for water- water tanks are delivered by trucks in 100-liter containers…

Initial conditions Villa El Salvador, source: Web

Current conditions, Villa El Salvador

Driving around Villa El Salvador: VIDEO

DESCO is one of the organizations that has worked substantially in Villa El Salvador to improve the living conditions of the community. In particular, the organization has focused on creating public and gathering spaces for the community: http://www.urbano.org.pe/

It is interesting to not the similarity in the “planning” between Villa El Salvador and Ciudad Nezahualcóyotl in Mexico City (a large area of the city that also began as a “planned” informal city”lacking basic services but with basic street delineations, blocks and lot subdivisions).

Aerial-Villa El Salvador (Lima)

Aerial of Neza (Mexico City): blocks and central spaces designated for urban equipments (schools, churches, etc.)

Through the next couple of posts, I want to give you a quick overview of some of the different types of informal urbanizations in Lima.

Ventanilla

Panoramic of Ventanilla

These “pueblos jóvenes” are located in the northern part of the city. They were created in the 1990s, during Alberto Fujimori’s tenure as President, as a way to accommodate the high rural-urban migration taking place in the country due to the terrorism and violence. Although it is located adjacent to the bay, Ventanilla is actually extremely arid, with mostly sand, with very little, if any, vegetation and rain.

Initially, the main streets were delineated as well as some subdivisions within the created blocks. One can clearly see the outlined grid.

People were invited to claim their piece of land, which they did so by placing a first fence made out of vegetable fiber/hay, “esteras”. This material quickly became the symbol of an informal settlement, also being used as part of a wall or roof.

No services or urban equipments (schools, community centers, hospitals), except for perhaps electricity, were provided initially.  In addition, there aren’t drainage canals, nor strict plumbing for potable water or black waters. Instead, water tanks sit on the roofs and in the side of lots. Alan Garcia “Agua para todos” (“water for all”), a program aiming to open access to potable water for all of Peru’s population, is supposed to take place soon sometime this year (I am still unclear how and what exactly the program will proceed)…

For bathrooms there are strict community rules concerning the construction of a latrine (hole of a certain size and deepness in the ground). In the same respect, there are specific self-regulating rules regarding garbage disposal (since the garbage truck only have access to the main avenues).

Since such a large percentage of the population lives in areas that are or began as informal settlements, there is an entire industry of prefabricated facades and panels that have developed.

Example of prefabricated housing panels

New + Settled + Older/More Consolidated

Soon to come- San Juan de Lubrigancho and Villa El Salvador.

Peru is one of the only Latin American countries that has not yet suffered the economic recession. Quite the contrary, due to its strong mining industry, the country is currently witnessing an economic and construction boom. In its majority, this boom is only seen in the upper brackets of society (classes A y B), leaving some of the most necessitated areas untouched, and as a result accentuating the existing social gap…

The case of Lima is not different from the rest of the country. There is a multi-racial, multi-cultural, multi-linguistic population that is unfortunately not recognized in the formal social and political structures, and as such relies on a large percentage of informality.

The Peruvian coast is a desert crossed by 52 rivers flowing with water from the Andes. Lima is situated less than 100km from the Andes, on the banks of the Rímac River, near its mouth in the Pacific Ocean. Originally cultivated by the Incas, the land on which the city is built is relatively flat. With regards to Lima’s urbanization, the desert like city remained relatively the same until the 20^th century. The city has grown both north and south, taking in the small valleys of the Chillón and Lurín Rivers.  In summary, the Peruvian capital developed around three nucleus: the city center located on the side of the river Rimac, the port, and the Balneareos, which consisted of smaller developments on the southern coast line following the train tracks to Chorrillos. Similar to a “connect the dots”, the city grew by filling in the gaps.

Lima's urban growth, source: DESCO

In the later part of the 20^th century, new developments and extensions (in orange) to the city began to take place to the North and Eastern areas. The majority of these extensions were illegal settlements.Towards the east, pueblos jóvenes developed in the gentle slopes at the foothills of the Andes; these are now climbing towards the higher parts of the hills, with greater slope and worse living conditions. Towards the west, Lima merges into the city of Callao. Because of the desert land between the rivers to the north and south, the land has been cheap, becoming a sort of land bank for low-income housing that the state has used since 1960s. “This phenomenon, as well as the informal urbanization process, which reached its apogee from the 1960s, explains the low density of the city, and its large extension.” (UDP City slum research, case study Lima). Today, Lima’s urbanization has over 270 square km that began as informal settlements. There are more than 2000 “pueblos jóvenes” or “young towns” (also called “asentamientos humanos” or “barriadas”) with 3.5 million people, out of a total city population of 8.5 million, living in them!

Lima's "pueblos jóvenes", source: DESCO

Worthy of mention, located along the highway Panamericana Norte, the Northern areas, once informal, have now “formalized” (with paved streets, public lighting and basic services) and have become sub-centers for the city managing a surprisingly large flow of money. As a result, the private sectors are greatly investing in the area, creating new commerce, malls, banks, supermarkets, etc. Although these areas have consolidated in what regards private space (housing, commerce, and offices), they are still unplanned and chaotic, lacking basic livability factors. To illustrate, the only interventions dealing public space are actually provided by private sector (the interventions are quite minimal and mostly regards beautification tactics such a small fountain or bench outside a commercial space, etc).

During my visit, I focused on the well know “sites and services” project from the 1970s Villa el Salvador, took a glance at a Northern settlement to the North (Ventanilla), and visited a couple of the older and more established  “pueblos jóvenes” to the East in San Juan de Lubrigancho.