“Not all the land in the city is suitable for development; we need to have a green area of the city in a healthy state that allows us to benefit from recreational spaces and also allows good soil permeability.”.
Taken from Diario Libre
SANTO DOMINGO.- The precedent set by the COVID-19 pandemic and its impact on people's physical and mental health is demanding the construction of a new city model that prioritizes "green spaces" or leisure areas, which complement the conditions of life at home.
The opinion comes from architect and technical secretary of the National District Mayor's Office, Jesús D'Alessandro, who states that Dominican society and the world are going through the worst public health crisis that humanity has experienced in the last hundred years and that human action has caused a record crisis in the environment that affects people's lives.
He understands that the National District and its metropolitan region, although on a smaller scale than the rest of the world, reflect the environmental and urban crisis that poses a great challenge for future generations in the next 10 to 20 years.
“We demand public spaces of a recreational nature that complement our private spaces, our homes. We need to go out and relax because the city should become an extension of our homes, given our need for fresh air and the ability to exercise freely outdoors. It is a different time, a different generation that is demanding this new kind of city,” he said.
In this transformation process driven by the pandemic and climate change, the Territorial Planning Plan (POT) plays a crucial role, as do other planning instruments such as the National District Strategic Plan. According to D'Alessandro, the normalization of public policies related to urban land aims to create the conditions for sustainable development for future generations.
“Not all the land in the city is suitable for development; we need to have a green area of the city in a healthy state that allows us to benefit from recreational spaces and also allows good soil permeability.”.
Regarding the environment and its influence on the coexistence of citizens, remember that the Dominican Republic is in the path of hurricanes among the other countries that make up the Caribbean and that when it is impacted by one of these phenomena, rainfall increases and the waters have nowhere to drain and high volumes of runoff are formed; this running water causes losses of public and private property and of urban life.
“If we urbanize the entire city, if we don't follow up on land use development plans and territorial planning plans, then we begin to create an unthinkable city, where the waters would flow and floods would occur again. That's why it's important to have a territorial planning plan based on best practices and research, as we already have,” he explains.
He explained that the city is developing specific sectoral plans that address current needs. He understands that given the situation created by COVID-19, climate change, and the demand for a new urban model, each case must be considered individually, but that efforts are underway to expand the drinking water network, improve the sewage system, and tackle problems that have plagued the city for over 20 years.
Mayor's office seeks to adapt to changes
The Technical Secretary of the National District Mayor's Office, Jesús D'Alessandro, affirms that the Mayor's Office is working on the city's transformation process and is proactively identifying new spaces to expand the city's green footprint, which he considers a key priority. The city is redefining the purpose of its sidewalks as universally accessible spaces that democratize the city's geography, as established by the Constitution, which upholds the rights to freedom of movement, association, and circulation. "People's freedom of movement and association is democratized by redefining sidewalks, making them more universally accessible, and this process also creates value, because the city's value increases when it becomes more accessible.".
