There has been a lot of praise for Medellin in the architecture and urban planning world due to a string of public infrastructure projects located in the city’s impoverished barrios (to be fair it’s not just architecture, the larger world is also very interested in MedellinJ. Many articles have already been written about the individual projects that spurred Medellin’s transformation from murder capital of the world to public-infrastructure innovator; I won’t go into detail about them here, but if you are interested here are a couple of articles:

• Metrocables
• Public Escalators
• Biblioteca Espana

I am talking about Medellin because we just got back from a too-brief trip to the city.

Sadly we didn’t have enough time to visit all of the above projects, but we did go on a graffiti tour of Comuna 13 that I would highly recommend. This tour is guided by members of Casa Kolacha, a non-profit hip-hop and graffiti school that promotes a message of peace through art. The group’s founder is quoted here.

Our Guide

Most of us know Medellin as the one time stronghold of Pablo Escobar, but the city’s barrios, including Comuna 13, were also strongholds of the FARC rebels. Our tour guide spoke about this history and told the story of the alliance between the Colombian government and the right-wing militias that drove out FARC in 2002 under Operation Orion. During this operation, the combined military and militia forces encircled Comuna 13 and laid siege to the area, resulting in hundreds of injured and disappeared. According to our guide, FARC fighters were aware of the operation and left the barrio prior to the siege, indicating that the majority of the causalities were civilian residents of the comuna. I am certainly no expert on the history Medellin, although the following accounts seem to back up his claim:

• http://colombiareports.com/human-rights-court-convicts-colombia-medellin-war-crimes/ )
• http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/a-sea-of-tears-impunity-victims-still-searching_us_580a1eace4b0f8715789f93c

Much of the praise for Medellin stems from the radical change in the city’s attitude towards areas like Comuna 13. The city’s new relationship with the barrios was characterized by the belief that infrastructure and community investment could reduce the chronic violence by giving a sense of dignity to the comuna as well as a new stake in the larger society[1].

The city’s bundle of projects in Comuna 13 are designed to produce different outcomes: the metrocable  connects Comuna 13 to Medellin’s train system, reducing commute times and ensuring residents have access to job centers. The public escalators, public art and well-designed public buildings send a political message to the residents of Comuna 13 that they are a valued part of the larger city. I looked for research quantifying the results of Medellin’s various projects and found a few articles, but I would like to look more into the subject.

• Metrocable Research
• Public Escalator Research
• More Public Escalator Research

The last article does state that average commute times have dropped to around an hour after the introduction of the Metrocable Line K (with part of the reduction also due to the introduction of bus lines and the larger metro system); however, clearly linking public investments to larger positive economic trends can be near impossible. In the case of Medellin’s barrios, measuring outcomes is made even more difficult as the areas are characterized by a high degree of informality, hindering data collection. Despite this, interviews with residents do seem to indicate that the objective of promoting a sense of integration with the larger city has been successful. Either way, it’s a fascinating place to visit.

 

[1] Fukuyama, Francis. “Half a Miracle.” Foreign Policy. Foreign Policy Magazine, 25 Apr. 2011. Web. 14 Apr. 2017. .