Street vendors protest, City’s most dangerous streets, Provincial ‘solidarity tax’ could end, Cattle, sheep rustling update, Sígsig gets farm

Miércoles, 27/11/2019

Hola, Todos –

Actividades –
De la pagina cultural –

Exposición – An exhibit, “Travesías Cromáticas” by Ariel Dawi opened yesterday in the Salón del Pueblo of CCE on Mariscal Sucre at Malo. The exhibit centers around his “Serie Cuenca 21.”

Ciclo de cine – The Universidad de las Artes and the Dirección Municial de Cultura have organized a film cycle about Marcel Duchamp. It will be in the Casa Municipal de las Posadas (Gran Colombia 17-42 y Miguel Heredia) from el miércoles to el viernes. Thursday’s films will be Seven Easy Pieces and Metrópolis, and Friday will be En México and El precio de todo.

Otras cosas –

Cuenca street vendors are demanding legal status.

Titular – Fin a tasa solidaria (End to solidarity rate) – This tax paid by vehicle owners when they register their cars, was eliminated in the first debate of the Provincial Council. The tax provides funds for rural roadwork and raises $4.5 million annually. Eliminating the tax was one of Yaku Pérez’ campaign promises. Opponents questioned how that money would be replaced. That amount is 12% of the federal funding received. If the results are repeated at the second debate which has not yet been scheduled, vehicle owners won’t have to pay the tax starting in 2020.

Patrimonial properties being destroyed – The main problems owners of historic properties have with conserving them is a lack of money and the slow pace of getting permits. The city is preparing a project to equitably distribute the responsibilities and and benefits to promote conservation.

A lawyer specializing in patrimony said there were at least 130 cases of illegal work on patrimonial properties in the last 4 years. Damage, deterioration, and destruction of historic property can be sanctioned with 1-3 years in jail, but has never been applied. What has been applied were economic and administrative sanctions. He said the solution shouldn’t be sanctions since owners can’t conserve their properties due to a lack of money. It would be better to create a public fund for conservation. <Tearing down a property so you can build a 28 story New Brutalist style edificio is a whole other issue.>
An architect/builder said there should be a technical guideline and an ordinance. He said owners should be able to sell part of the property for new construction and use the money to conserve the rest. He also thought the city should eliminate taxes and mentioned other cities such as Bogotá and in Argentina have used these methods. <Old houses are for the rich. No one else can afford to keep them up.>

Abandoned farm given to Sígsig – The farm that belonged to CREA (Centro de Reconversión Económica de Azuay, Cañar y Morona Santiago) will be given to Sígsig. The experimental and demonstration farm was taken over by different agencies and finally abandoned. It has 19 varieties of apples and in 2012 produced 25 tons of fruit. <I had an apple from Sígsig once. What an exquisite flavor.>

Motorcycle accidents – So far in 2019, 13 people have been killed and another 256 injured in motorcycle accidents in Cuenca. An analysis concluded the primary cause was inattention by riders using cell phones. <Using a phone while piloting a moto sounds suicidal.>The second was ignoring road signs. When all vehicles are counted, deaths rose to 31 and injuries to over 640. The streets with the highest incidences of accidents is De Las Américas in Miraflores, at calles Luis Cordero (traffic from and to El Centro), Octavio Chacón (Parque Industrial) and av. Ricardo Duran (road to Baños). Other spots are av. Carlos Arízaga, Don Bosco y 12 de Octubre, González Suárez y Pancho Villa, and av. Hauyna Cápac y Juan Jaramillo.

Street vendors – Street vendors marched to ask Mayor Palacios to stop confiscation by the Guardia Ciudadana. They wanted to meet with him to resolve the problem. A representative said the vendors are not doing anything bad. They are working. After the march, another group of vendors went into city hall to talk with the mayor. After that meeting the vendors’ representative said confiscations would be stopped while a dialogue is being opened. <I don’t think those venders are doing anything wrong either, and they sure do locate themselves conveniently.>

Sheep stolen – 13 Katahdin sheep, 1 ram and 12 ewes valued at $5,000, were stolen from the Rosas Loma sector in Sinincay. The ram was a champion at sheep fairs due to his excellent genetics (blood lines?), reproduction, and adaptation to the climate. The week before, two cows worth $1,600.00 were rustled in San Joaquín, but recovered in Morocho Quigua. Another 4 were taken from Tarqui, and 1 from Quingeo. The penalty for rustling is 1-3 years.<So keep your hands off other people’s cows.>

Descuentos y compras –

CIPEM Industrial Fair – Exposur Cuenca Potencia Industrial – 14 & 15/12, 10-20:00 – Centro de Convenciones, Mall del Río – exhibiting Cuenca’s industrial products. <Do you like looking at cement?>

Tedasa – Continental, General and Barum tires – Black Friday, 28, 29, & 30/11 from 7-19:00 – up to 40% off on all tires.

Ugalde Jerves – stuff like TVs (32″ Blaupunkt for $195.53), Umco Air fryer for $65.75 and mini-blender for $24.60 – 29 & 30/11 – av. Gil Ramírez Dávalos y El Pedregal and Sucre 3-84 y Vargas Machuca.

And that’s all for today so Hasta ? –

Jeanne