For Harold S.
A couple of months ago we were surprised to see a pod that was very strange in its own way: the municipal administration was collecting signatures from the Funzanos and Funzanas to support a right to petition that was about to be sent to the Bogotá Mayor's Office in search of solutions to the problem of 13th street (the solution they asked for was to put a pick and a plate on the cargo transport). Three days later, the outgoing president, Iván Duque ––accompanied by the governor, Nicolás García, the mayoress of Bogotá, Claudia López, and the mayors of Funza, Mosquera, Facatativá and Madrid– announced that 5 billion pesos would be allocated to expand the 13th street corridor as a work of the Metropolitan Region.
They do not stitch without a thimble
La gobernación y la alcaldía de Funza did not stitch without a thimble: at first they were accompanying demonstrations towards 13th Street, in which the department's secretary of mobility, Jorge Godoy, was especially present. After that, the mayor of Funza did his thing with the pantomime of the right to petition. And finally, with Iván Duque's announcement, the resources for the expansion of the corridor to 13th Street were practically conditioned to the entry of the municipalities in the figure of the Bogotá-Cundinamarca Metropolitan Region. In this way, like many others that have come and will come, they have been forcing the municipalities to access this very problematic supra-municipal figure. In this regard, if you do not know the figure or if you do not know its serious difficulties,I recommend this conversation made a few days ago by Censored with councilors from the region.
However, this proposed road widening solution, which was the only one they found, does not take into account another type of problems that affect the municipalities of the savannah and that are manifested in the terrible traffic jams. Basically, the expansion of Calle 13, if it is carried out, will turn the usual traffic jam into aSUPERTRANCÓNwith five lanes, in the best style of cities that bet on widening roads rather than addressing the different aspects of mobility problems.
It is worth remembering these facts to deal here with another point that cannot be made without a thimble: in this case, the councilors de Funza, headed by councilor John Baquero. I am going to summarize what is already known: in the Council session on July 22, the floor was given to the councilor so that, conducting himself in a performative way (taking off his jacket and putting on a T-shirt with the number #EstamosMamados), convene a sit-in held on Monday, July 25, at 6 am, at the La Tebaida toll booth, for the DEVISAB concession. The purpose is for the concession to pay attention to their complaints and stop "harming the municipality," according to him.
What does a council as unpopular and as little known as this want? What does John Baquero want, the raised pupil of César Gaviria? The councilor and his colleagues in the publicity fight do not stitch without a thimble and they know that they are one year away from local and regional elections. The little popularity they have now does not even help them to stay in the positions they are in, much less to advance to a bigger one like the municipal mayor's office. So they have to do this, touching a neuralgic point of the urban environment in which we live and with which people are dissatisfied: the Tebaida toll booth. Does the councilman and his colleagues know that treating people like fools is much more offensive than bluntly bringing up where their stitches are leading?
Well, let's say it's not. Let's say that the councilors have good intentions, as they always have in their wonderful debates on political control, worthy of being remembered for their rigor and investigative and argumentative strength. The best thing, then, will be to present a few points for them to reflect on in their “struggle”: first, in the issues of the city, not only one actor is responsible for building its form. On the contrary, there is always an intersection of actors and variables present. In the case of the DEVISAB concession road, the fact that there are so many accidents is not solely the fault of the concession (its role is prominent, but not total, as suggested by the councilor and his colleagues). Governments also influence the pathway through policies, permits, and other actions or omissions. For example, regulating the speed limit on the road is the responsibility of the government as it is a departmental road. This would have a high impact on the high accident rate that has been occurring on the road for many years, and not only now.
Second, the councilor forgets that private car use has a lot to do with incentives governments: they have promoted a real estate offer that responds to some unresolved demands in Bogotá, along with some job offers that have turned the municipalities into nuclei of industrial parks that promote a high flow of heavy cargo transportation. It also does not take into accountomissionsof the departmental and municipal governments so that there are pedestrian crossings (bridges or traffic lights) in the areas where the road crosses the most, which are many, which only requires the concession. If the governments know that the concession today,after 26 years, do not dare to build bridges or make different pedestrian crossings, they have had to take actions by bringing mobility managers who work jointly with the traffic police, depending on the competition, and thus fill the void that exists in pedestrian mobility while positioning very clearly before granting the need that there is.
Why do you allow, as those in charge of political control, that governments wash their hands of their responsibilities and avoid blaming only the concession?
If the councilors, with just reason, today complain about the very long contract already established with the same operator For more than two decades, why don't they also worry about the contracts that they sign today in a similar modality, as is the case with the Regiotram, which will have 30 years with the same operator with competition in fares? Why have the councilors dozed so long with an old-fashioned issue like this and now, suddenly, they "wake up" to say that they are "blown"? What are they sucked on? Of not getting popular support that accompanies them to the next elections? Well, with their severe ignorance of the problems of the municipality and the region, as well as their cheap opportunism, they will continue to alienate the few who, today, look at them in the distance thanks to the show. They just do the same as all politicians: don't stitch without a thimble. But they no longer have a stitch to give.
July 27, 2022
