Cuenca’s ‘Big Dig’ studied, Street theater, Resistance to bus fare increase, Biogas plant reduces waste

Martes, 29/8/2017

Hola, Todos –

Pagina cultural –

Upcoming agenda events

Monologue – Quiteño actor Pablo Ropeguipa will perform “Asfixia” (Suffocation) mañana a las 17:30 and a las 20:00 in República Sur. The work is an adaptation of Swallow by Steve Yockey. The monologue lasts 15 min. <It might be hard to listen to someone talk about suffocation for an hour and half. I imagine there are lots of people who don’t even have to leave home to hear that monologue.>

Teatro – “Barrio Caleidoscopio” by Carlos Gallegos will be performed el viernes, a las 20:00, in the La Guarida Centro Cultural. On 15/9 a las 11:00 y (and) 20:00, the last two (Numbers 199 & 200) performances of “Plush” will be staged in the Casa de la Cultura (CCE).

Convocatorio (Convocation – call) – The U. de las Artes is arranging Inter-Actos, Encuentros Públicos de Artes (Inter-Acts, Public Art Encounters) from 18-22/10. The event is to stimulate academic and cultural interchange. The event is directed at Ecuadorian artists or collectives resident in Ecuador and/or foreign artists or large collectives. <Aritsts will get to talk about art with people whose profession is to talk about art.>

Articles about –

Festival La Orquídea – Wednesday is the last day to submit your work for inclusion in El Festival de Cine La Orquídea Cuenca. The festival had received 180 submissions by last viernes including 30 Ecuadorian short films, 90 full-length films, and 15 productions in progress with submittals coming from several countries. The festival will be from 24/11 to 1/12 with venues including the Multicines at Milenium Plaza, teatro Carlos Cueva Tamariz, teatro in the CCE, teatro Pumapungo, and Teatro Sucre.

La Cusinga – The Teatro Barojo group will perform the story of Manuela Quesada (La Cusinga) and Jean Seniergues, a French surgeon with La Condamine’s Misión Geodésica Francesa. In 1739, Jean dishonored La Cusinga and was killed in San Sebastián. The story will be performed in public spaces in El Centro from Wednesday until sábado. They will start at 10:00 in El Vado, then go to San Sebastián, then to Calle Ana <calle Santa Ana?> which ends the circuit. In the afternoon, it will repeat starting at 14:30 in El Vado. <I’d tell you to go to San Sebás and ask to see the bloodstain on the floor, but I’m afraid there are some of you who’d take it seriously.>

CCE – The CCE is proposing a new management model for the Sala Proceso.

Otras cosas –

Titular – Viaducto subterráneo para aliviar el tráfico (Underground viaduct to relieve traffic) – The city is looking at building an underpass from Paseo de los Cañaris to España and Turuhuayco. Other projects to decongest traffic will be at Av. De Las Américas and Octavio Chacón; Paseo de las Cañaris and González Suárez; and the redondel at the IESS Hospital, which is the intersection with the most accidents in the past 2 years. <Well, at least you can say the municipality is spreading roadwork misery out to other areas beside El Centro.>

The city categorizes roads in the city from A to F where A is a street with no problems such as 3 de Noviembre where traffic is light. Category F are those “que ya están totalmente colapsadas” (which are already completely collapsed) with traffic speed less than 20 km/hr.) <El Centro must rate an F for just about everywhere.>

<I’m reading the last paragraph and it just got worse.> The underpass would run under the airport, and the work would be done while the terminal is being repaired if the design studies can be done in minimal time.

Fishing – On la noche del domingo (Sunday night), a court in la Isla San Cristóbol, Galápagos, sentenced the 20 crew members of the Chinese factory fishing boat. The captain got 4 years, 3 officers got 3 years, and the rest of the crew got 1 year in jail. There was also a sliding scale from $127,000 to $2 million for fines and damages. The crime was hunting, fishing, capturing, trafficking, commercializing, etc. wild plants and animals that are threatened, in danger of extinction, and migratory as listed by the National Environmental Authority.

Biogas plant – The plant at the Pichacay landfill in Santa Ana Parish has been open for almost 3 months and so far has eliminated 1,320,000 metric tons of greenhouse gases. In junio, the plant sold $28,000 of energy to Empresa Eléctrica, and in julio, it sold $60,000. It has generated 1,324,000 kilowatts of power, although the primary objective was environmental rather than monetary.

Buses – The Cámara de Transporte de Cuenca (CTC – Cuenca Chamber of Transport) is still waiting for the Consejo Cantonal de Cuenca (Cuenca Cantonal Council) to debate the issue of raising bus fares. The Cuenca branch of the Federation of University Students of Ecuador announced their opposition to fare increases. The Federation interviewed 800 students – 87% were opposed to a fare increase. 56.5% thought service was regular, 6% thought it was very bad, and 15.9% thought it was bad. Also, 47.6% of the students came from families with incomes less than $400/mo.

The president of the CTC said that it wanted a fare of 38¢ <See? I finally found the ¢ symbol!> which would allow for replacing the whole fleet, generating about 1,000 new jobs, better training for drivers, and other benefits for riders. The U. of Cuenca study had fare options of 26, 32, 33, and 34 cents depending on the “options.” wanted. The study also identified riders’ priority list: frequency of buses, security, accessibility to the stops, and the friendliness of the driver.

Ordóñez Lasso – There are 120 businesses of all sizes along the street from the redondel Simón Bolívar to the Virgen del Milagro with a dozen edificios/condominios. Of the 120 businesses, the majority are food sites, then tiendas, laundries, pharmacies, dentists and labs. Business is also picking up although some have closed due to rising rents and others due to lack of parking.

Carachula, which is the city of rock, in the Santa Isabel canton. Carachula is at 3,400 m. above sea level and has colossal white rocks and rock formations.

And that´s all for today so Hasta Mañana –

Jeanne