More cameras in high-crime areas, Landslide closes Amazon highway, Plan to reduce begging, Alianza Frances urban culture festival kicks off

Lunes, 9/9/2019

Hola, Todos –

Actividades –
De la pagina cultural –

II Festival de Culturas Urbanas – This festival organized by the Alianza Frances will be from 12-26/9. It will include art and foto exhibits, a breaking jam, a funk fiesta, a graffiti performance, documentary films, mural painting, freestyle battles, concerts, and meetings with urban art figures. The festival will open el jueves, 12/9 a las 20:00 in the Alianza Francesa with exhibit “La Conecta II,” the art of street art and fotos of hip hop culture. there will be a rap concert by D Rivera and live music by DJ Powa). There will be a break dancing jam, fiesta funk with live music, and a mini-vinyl fare on el sábado, 14/9 a las 14:00 in the Escuela Central. Free. <Funk is good – the funkier the better.>

“Chulpicine” – The Festival Infantil y Juvenil “Chulpicine 2019” started Monday with Cuenca as one of the national headquarters. The films to be shown are produced by children and youth. The shows open to the public will be in the Teatro Sucre a las 10:00 and 15:00. The screenings will be until el 12/9.

A new program is aimed at stopping begging on city streets.

Manuel Tarqui – This cuencano artist has made a large scale painting of Cuenca which will be installed in a new hotel near Ibarra. <The foto of the painting looks like it’s all the facades of the churches in Cuenca plus other notable buildings.> The artist’s studio is located at Lamar 14.61 y Coronel Tálbot.

Circo – “La Gran variedad de Circo” (The Great variety of Circus) will perform “Imperdible” el 20/9 a las 20:00 in the Teatro Sucre. Cost: presales – $5.00, day of event – $7.00. Call 095 864 4632.

Otras cosas –

Titular – “Leonas” sueñan con la Copa Libertadores (“Leonas” dream of the Copa Libertadores) – Something about women’s soccer <and you know I don’t do fútbol>. Also the Bolivia national team is in Cuenca to play Ecuador in a friendly match at the Estadio Alejandro Serrano Aquilar Tuesday a las 19:00. <This item should probably be under “road closure.” Traffic is going to be bad around the stadium.>

Improving mobility – For the Semana de Movilidad which is from 16-22/9, a new pilot program to design supermanzanas (superblocks) will be developed. Each superblock will be 300-500m long and join 3-4 regular blocks. The idea <seems to be> to make circulation more pedestrian friendly and improve the quality of public spaces. The first two superblocks proposed are in El Centro and Don Bosco. In El Centro, the block will comprise Simón Bolívar, Luis Cordero, Gran Colombia y Pres. Borrero. <That sounds like traffic nightmare – and what about the Tranvía if it ever starts running. I suppose the solution is to not drive in El Centro. In which case it might be nice to put some lifts between the river and calle Larga.>

Seguridad – The Consejo de Seguridad Ciudadana (CSC -Citizen Security Council) will reinforce security in public spaces with the installation of video surveillance cameras. In a few days, there will be 180 cameras placed in strategic areas that have experienced crime and calls to 911. Currently there are 144 cameras in parks, plazas, rivers banks, avenues, outside schools, and other areas where people congregate. Cameras are mounted on a 12 m. post with a loudspeaker above. When the people monitoring the camera see something odd, they can use the loudspeaker to interrupt whoever is doing whatever suspicious, call the cops or other agency. The monitoring center makes 10 calls about suspicious activity a week.

Begging – The Ministerio de Inclusión y Económica Social (MIES – The Ministry of Social Inclusion and Economy) has started taking action to address the problems of Venezuelans who are stuck with begging with children to survive. MIES has signed an agreement with the Rafalex Foundation to open a Centro de Movilidad Humana (Human Mobility Center) to provide health, education and adaptation by minors, and to help with documents and the migration situation in general. They are working so that there is no violation of the rights of children.

Road closure – The vía Gualaceo-Plan de Milagro was closed by a landslide yesterday morning at km. 32. The Ministerio de Transporte y Obras Públicas through ECU911, estimated the clean up will take about 48 hours. The only alternate route from Azuay to the Oriente is the vía Paute-Guarumales-Méndez. <And it’s probably scary as hell. If you look on a map, the road looks like someone with a bad case of the shakes drew it.>

Descuentos y compras –

Coral – Christmas baskets from $8.00 to $170.00.

And that’s all for today so Hasta ? –

Jeanne