"I did not see more than one house, which they said was owned by the chief ..." Juan Dávila said of his arrival -with Juan Vazquez de Coronado- to the town of Acserrí, in 1596. Carlos Benavides explains that the explorers found a population " scarce and dispersed within the Central Valley of Costa Rica "with a" diluted character "and a" great proliferation of administrative structures ", which" determined that it was difficult to constitute a strong State, founded on taxes and urban planning, as it happened within Aztec and Inca society. " (Journal of UCR Studies, 1985)
The small population, the settlement based on scattered ranches and the extensive use of natural resources, facilitated the process of subjugation for the Spaniards, who by way of derision, perpetuated the phrase "more caciques than Indians", to refer to the difficulties of coordination between the indigenous people who ended up guaranteeing their defeat.
Four hundred and twenty-four years later, the inhabitants of the Central Valley continue to face great challenges around taxes and urban planning. As we prepare to choose the 186 regidurías that - over the next four years - will dictate the different urban planning measures in the 31 cantons of our Greater Metropolitan Area (GAM), it is prudent to meditate on the daily implications of the geopolitical scheme that we inherited from Pacara , Guarco and Garabito, and if this is congruent with our current reality or should it change.
It is impossible to avoid comparisons with the Huetar people. The GAM has a small population if compared to other Latin American cities, but it is a great (great!) Metropolitan area if analyzed based on its consumption of territory and natural resources; as extensive as Bogotá, São Paulo or Mexico City, but divided between 31 administrative realities and almost 200 decision makers.
Other cities in the region with a similar territorial scale operate more efficiently:
· Bogotá -with its 7.3 million inhabitants- has only 45 regidurías.
· Mexico City (8.5 million inhabitants) has 66 congressmen.
· São Paulo (11.3 million inhabitants) has 55 vereadurías.
On average, large Latin American cities elect 1 representative for every 165,000 inhabitants, while the GAM 1 for every 11,000. The inevitable product of this is well known: trunked infrastructure, congestion as far as the eye can see, hanging rivers, informal settlements out of control, and complex and cumbersome paperwork.
Our “mini-cipalities” have an adequate scale to provide some basic services -such as waste collection, road cleaning or park maintenance- but definitely, sustainable and integral urban planning is too big for them.
Do we need to rethink the administrative division of the territory? Definitively!, but we still have a few tricks up our sleeve. Articles 63 and subsequent articles of our Urban Planning Law (LPU) propose a structure with the potential to unify our city: The San José Metropolitan Area Planning Office (OPAM).
Since 1968 our legislators devised this inter-municipal body attached to the National Institute of Housing and Urbanism. It is made up of technicians from Aqueducts and Sewers, the Costa Rican Electricity Institute, the Municipalities of the Metropolitan Area and the Ministries of Transportation, Education and Health.
The OPAM has a stable and independent source of financing from the Ministry of Finance, thanks to the contribution of 1% of the annual budget of the municipalities of San José, Escazú, Desamparados, Goicoechea, Alajuelita, Coronado, Tibás, Moravia, Montes de Oca, Curridabat and any other neighboring municipality that agrees to provide this service permanently (Art. 62).
The planning products generated by this service - unlike PRUGAM and POTGAM - acquire the force of law (Art. 64) which guarantees their immediate application.
Despite all these facilities, the OPAM has never operated. None of the institutions involved has triggered the constitution of the office, but each one has sought a segregated, dispersed and diluted territorial action, as has been the custom of the inhabitants of this valley, since times without memory.
Can we overcome the urban legacy of our ancestors and reconcile our fractured realities?
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