On the first weekend of June, the call of Civil and Commercial Court No. 7 in charge of Virginia Ofelia Correnti to the auction of an emblematic space for our city. Under file 21,358 titled “Armarla José María c/ Pinto Guillermo Enrique – Ordinary Collection of Pesos s/ Execution of Sentence and Fees”, the auction of the lot will be carried out through the Portal of Electronic Judicial Auctions of the Judiciary of Entre Ríos, starting on June 26 at 7:00 and for 5 business days. These lands have been defended for years by the people of Paraná against real estate speculation, because they are lands that in fact have a central public utility. They are located in front of one of the most important squares in the city in terms of landscape, culture, and even tourism. The Plaza del Patito Sirirí is located in the ravines of Urquiza Park, with a privileged view of the Paraná River. The lands in dispute constitute a continuity of this square, they are natural ravines with one of the most beautiful viewpoints in the city. And at the same time it is used as a green space for public use.
The city in dispute
In recent years, with real estate speculation generating an occupation of the city under the logic of the market, supposed owners of these “lots” “appeared.” It should be noted that all infrastructure and maintenance works are supported by the municipality and the province; However, the “now legitimate owners” ignore these apparently superficial details that sustained and valued this space all those years in which these supposed owners had legal disputes for “judgment expenses and fees.” We have been building assemblies and mobilizations for many years, even in times of pandemic, to save this space from the clutches of speculation. Where the people of Paraná see a meeting place, a place of enjoyment and support of our culture tied to our magnificent Paraná River, the real estate sector only sees profits. The use of this space for any other use that is not public and collective is harmful to the city. Any building in this place would generate an interruption of one of the most emblematic views of Urquiza Park and the river; and any deprivation of the use of the ravines would generate an enormous cultural and citizen loss.
Coastal gentrification
The space adjacent to Plaza del Patito is not the only one in dispute within our city. Surely in these days of June, if you live in Paraná or near Entre Ríos you may have been invaded by an advertisement via social networks about a new real estate venture in a space, apparently little urbanized but very well located in the city, in the neighborhood of Bajada Grande. Bajada is historic, it is one of the first inhabited neighborhoods and foundational for our city. Its proximity to the river and its incredible views of the islands make it unique and imbued our city with its own identity. Today we witness the loss of that identity and the right to our city, we are experiencing a process of gentrification that we could call “along the coast.” Because the lands that they intend to “revalue” are not essentially urbanized lands, since some parts, for example, have been in conflict over their possible belonging to Parque Nuevo, but they are neighborhoods where there is an invasion of space by the middle classes. -additions with private neighborhoods and the attempted expulsion of the local population with the excuse of seeking to “revalue” land that, in reality, has been devalued by the abandonment of the State itself. The same State that, with successive governments, provides legal protection for speculation.
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This sector of the city within the urban code was not buildable until a few years ago, and in express and undisclosed sessions the “honorable” city councilors modified the rules at the service of the concentrated sectors of real estate speculation, a modification now judicialized. The thing is that in addition to being projects that break access to the river and contradict other regulations, they lack environmental impact studies to support them, in the context that this specific area of our city has particularly clay soil, which It complicates the construction of mega towers and the modification of the soil that must be carried out for the building has an even more profound impact.
We live like this, with our particularities, processes that develop worldwide and constitute global brands of neoliberal urbanism that are creating “new landscapes” and breaking the history of the place with new realities. The project of mega towers in places where what is usual is a natural environment, the sale of these canned projects that break the pre-existing community relationship, moves away from the logic of the right to the city. For this to happen, it is necessary that a part of the population has sufficient resources to displace the poorer sectors who are the ones who originally occupied these territories. Here we see the cruelest side of this speculative capitalism, many of these mega real estate developments are designed with money from agribusiness, for example, and they are not necessarily built for pre-established inhabitants, but rather they are built and left empty. We can’t help but wonder: in Bajada, who is going to live in those towers? And about the Duckling, who can access the auction? The answer is also evident: the workers of Paraná are not the recipients of these city projects.
The right to the city and the fight to guarantee it
For all this, it is urgent to defend our landscape and historical heritage. Bajada and Las Barrancas belong to the people and it is the people who must decide, we must stop these projects that are far from the needs of the social majorities and that the real estate construction and the projection of the city are at the service of a city for the people of Parana.
