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Colombia city makes a U-turn

Bogota, once a world capital of mayhem, is now held up as a model.
By Chris Kraul
Times Staff Writer

October 28, 2006

A decade ago, the Bosa slum was the black hole of Bogota. Its darkest corner was Laurel Park, a grassless, trash-strewn lot with open sewage and gun-toting gangs bent on muggings and murder.

Today, Bosa has paved streets, new schools, health clinics and cafeterias, and links to a new mass transit system. Laurel Park has been rechristened Park of the Arts and is alive with children at play and free theater, fashion shows and concerts.

Like much of this re-energized capital of more than 7 million inhabitants, the war zone that was Bosa has been transformed.

"The change has surprised everyone, not just visibly but socially," said Nubia Zuaza, a community activist who has lived in the area for 20 years. "From a focal point of delinquency, the park now embodies a sense of community that wasn't there before."

The same can be said for much of Bogota, which in the 1990s earned a well-deserved reputation as a world capital of mayhem. Car bombings, assassinations, killings and kidnappings sent thousands of Bogota's residents fleeing to the United States or had them hunkering down in their homes. Bogota was, in many urban experts' view, a failed city choked with traffic and pollution and victimized by a seemingly uncontrollable crime wave.

The full article here: http://fairuse.100webcustomers.com/fairenough/latimes521.html

It's nice to see positive things in the press, even if it's only once in a while.

By Patrick on Oct 29, 2006, 12:10 in Friendly Talkzone.

webmanco says on Oct 29, 2006, 16:05:

Nice Thanks for sharing

Colombia city makes a U-turn

Bogota, once a world capital of mayhem, is now held up as a model

...A yo, déjenme queto y no me jodan má! ...

0 funny, 0 helpful.

juancegomez says on Oct 29, 2006, 21:48:

Good news is always welcome Especially when, as is usual, bad news about Colombia is so much more prevalent in the press.

The article is a good overview of some of the changes that Bogotá has experienced over the past decade and beyond.

0 funny, 0 helpful.