Also Migrating From Latin America: A Wave of Urban Innovation

Thu, 6 Jun 2024 03:55:08 +1000

Andrew Pam <xanni [at] glasswings.com.au>

Andrew Pam
<https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2024-04-30/from-mexico-city-to-lima-latin-america-is-exporting-urban-innovations>

"Over the last few years, a first-of-its-kind sanctuary neighborhood for
migrants opened in a canyon next to the San Diego-Tijuana border wall. The
UCSD-Alacrán Community Station, created through a partnership with the
University of California San Diego Center on Global Justice, houses around
1,800 people; the three-acre site also features a health care clinic, food hub,
school and outdoor plaza. More than an emergency shelter, Alacrán is designed
to help those fleeing violence in their countries of origin participate
actively in shaping the social, cultural and economic life of the ad-hoc city
that they now call home.

UCSD-Alacrán is one of four cross-border community stations — two in Tijuana,
two in San Diego — that the Center on Global Justice launched with local
nonprofits and school districts. But their inspiration comes from the Colombian
cities of Bogotá and Medellín, says Teddy Cruz, the center’s director of urban
research. As they emerged from years of drug cartel violence in the 1990s and
early 2000s, those cities implemented a variety of experimental social policies
to improve urban life, from hiring mimes to direct traffic to building a
network of library parks in high-poverty neighborhoods.

The idea, according to Cruz and center founding director Fonna Forman, was to
rebuild patterns of trust and social cooperation from the ground up."

Via Reasons to be Cheerful:
<https://reasonstobecheerful.world/what-were-reading-fine-free-libraries-new-california-park/>

Cheers,
       *** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net               Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/                 Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/            Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/               Manager, Serious Cybernetics

Comment via email

Home E-Mail Sponsors Index Search About Us