Moreno: Make it easier to deport foreigners who commit crimes; Transportation plan ignored; Tram coordinates with bus route; Autism benefit

Miércoles, 5/2/2020

Hola, Todos –

Actividades –
De la pagina cultural –

Exibición – An exhibit organized by students in the 7th cycle of their studies in the Artes Visuales at the U. of Cuenca will open jueves a las 19:00 in the Casa del Artista (av. Loja y calle cantón Gualaceo). It will be open until 14/3. Free.

Concierto – The Orquesta Sinfónica de Cuenca will play a concert of Russian music este viernes a las 20:00 in the iglesia de Santo Domingo.

Book launch – The U. of Cuenca will present “Las cartas de doña Ana Zurita Ochoa” by María Teresa Arteaga mañana a las 18:00 in the Auditorio de las Monjas. Zurita Ochoa was a Spaniard who lived in colonial Cuenca and the book analyzes her letters which she wrote as a manner of resistance at a time when literature was dominated by men.

Del cuerpo del periodico –

Guns n’ Roses plays Estadio Atahualpa in Quito in March.

Gala for children with autism – The non-profit organization Ecuador Charities arranging a dinner with a dance and live orchestra on 15/2 at the hotel Inca Real to benefit children with autism. There is a foto of the coordinater, Ned Meisner. <If you want this copy of the paper, let me know via the comments section.>

Guns N’ Roses – The band will bring its “Not In This Lifetime” tour to the Estadio Atahualpa in Quito el 21/3. Tickets available at joinnus.com.ec and at Western Union (on Borrero in Cuenca). Cost: $55-$300.

Otras cosas –

Titular – Movilidad se agrava pese a que hay plan (Mobility worsens even though there is a plan) – El Plan de Movilidad de Espacios Públicos de Cuenca (The Mobility Plan of Public Spaces in Cuenca) was written in 2015 at a cost of about $1 million but never implemented due to lack of political will to make decisions as a whole and not piecemeal. The plan addressed issues such as transit, public transportation, bicycles, reduction of pollution and noise, and road safety.

The plan took into account data about traffic in Cuenca including the rate of car ownership which is 120 vehicles per 1,000 people nationally, but is 240 per 1,000 in Cuenca with its population of about 615,000. In the city, there is parking for about 150,000 vehicles. Of the cars that go into El Centro, 40% are only passing through  and points of conflict were identified.

Some of its recommendations were to pedestrianize certain streets in the Centro Histórico. The supermanzanas (super blocks) around parque Calderón and recent re-closure of one block of Padre Aguirre is a response to that recommendation. Other recommendations to take traffic off El Centro streets included building new interchanges on De Las Américas at Miraflores and at the Sindicato de Choferes gas station, and building new bridges in the Parque Industrial and on 24 de Mayo at the U. de Azuay. The plan also called for the reorganization and integration of all transportation lines by 2022. To address alternative transportation, the Bici Pública project and the Ciclovías de los Ríos project with 13 km.of bike lanes were planned. <It would be interesting to read the whole plan. Might take all year, though.>

Expelling foreigners who commit crimes – Pres. Moreno asked the Asamblea Nacional to allow authorities to deport foreigners who are arrested for committing crimes. This request came after the killing of a woman in Quito by a Venezuelan. Changes to the Ley de Movilidad would also deny entry to travellers with criminal records who are wanted in their home countries. <So if you’re picture is posted in the post office, you won’t be able to run away to Ecuador.>

Patrimonial properties – Since 1/2019, the Dirección Municipal de Áreas Históricas y Patrimoniales has cited 52 owners of old houses for work without a permit or allowing them to fall into a deteriorated state. <Deteriorated isn’t just needing a coat of paint – one of the fotos shows a house with the roof falling in and crumbling walls.>. 7 of these cases have been in the past month. To avoid more of these, the city council is analyzing a reform to the ordinance that governs building permits with the goal of generating funds to care for and conserve historic properties. The council reached an agreement with construction guilds for permit fees to include money that can be given to owners of historic properties for conservation purposes.

Azuayan flowers not going to China – Only one of the 4 flower plantations in Azuay and Cañar was exporting summer flowers to China and it is now looking for other markets to send the flowers that would have gone to China for Valentine’s Day.

Tranvía – The Tranvía will be integrated with the bus feeder lines from Baños and Ricaurte at the end stops for the Tranvía. The goal is for passengers to make one electronic payment to take a feeder line and get on the Tranvía. With the tranfers, the current 100 bus line will be duplicated, and save the city from having to build transfer stations at Control Sur and Milchichig. To prevent accidents, when passengers cross the street from one mode of transportation to the other, the pedestrian stoplights will be timed. Municipal employees will be in the tram cars to control fare evasion.

And that’s all for today so Hasta ? –

Jeanne
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Editor’s note: Jeanne’s Periodico is a translated digest of news from the Cuenca daily newspaper El Mercurio. If details, such as event dates and times, do not appear in the translation, they did not appear in the newspaper. The text between the carrots, or guillemets (< … >), is Jeanne’s personal opinion and not part of the news translation.