A concrete and grass conumdrum

Is Panama’s Cinta Costera (the Coastal Strip), patches of concrete surrounded by strips of grass, or strips of grass surrounded by by concrete? That’s the glass half empty or full conundrum that local citizens are facing as the finishing date for the much vaunted “park for all the people” gets extended once again. This time for another 60 days, after the promised June 20-21 deadline. That had followed the promised June 7 completion date, and the original wild projection of May, issued by Public Works Minister Benjamin Colamarco at the opening ceremonies in 2007.

That was when he also promised that residents of Paitilla, Punta Pacifica and San Francisco , Bella and the run down rabbit warren of Calidonia, would have their taxes bumped up to help pay for the concrete wonder.

His rational? Rising land values. The Cinta Costera would, he claimed push prices up. In the Avenida Balboa area he forecast that land values would rise to $5,000 a square meter and purchasers of apartments would make windfall profits. Last week real estate bodies announced that property values were down by 2.8 percent and still falling, and new buildings sit empty, and owners and speculators are panicking as they try to sell or rent the skeletons in the sky.

Lest you think that the new piece of land is half grass, the last report was “80 percent roads and parking lots”(concrete).

Fortunately, President Martin Torrijos , pressured by those with influence and big investments along Balboa, rescinded the tax grab. Unfortunately for him, the gesture was not enough to guarantee completion of the concrete maze, in time for him to cut the ribbon. As president-elect Ricardo Martinelli has said he was against the project, who then will perform the opening ceremony? When it comes to photo-ops, politicians have been known to change their minds.

Meanwhile, Colamarco, the man who helped run the notorious Dignity Battalion under dictator Manuel Noriega, has blamed the delays on negotiations over rights of way. Did these surface only in the closing days of construction?.

He finally adds that when it’s completed doesn’t really matter, as it will be there for generations to come, presuming of course that Global warming doesn’t create rising water levels, letting the Pacific reclaim it’s lost territory.

The Fishing and Yacht Club, the beneficiary of newly created landfill, and the donation of scores of millions of dollars worth of land, has not yet constructed new buildings, the design of which was to have been approved by the Ministry.

Neighbors are hoping that the new homes for the dozens of yachts presently sitting on another mass of new concrete, are more pleasing to the eye than the previous sheds with corrugated green roofs. But then again, beauty being in the eye of the beholder, the select 600 members may have a different perspective.

The other beneficiary of the people’s park, is the Continental Mirimar Hotel, which has constructed a new underground parking lot, topped by another massive slab of concrete. Nearby are newly placed benches facing strips of, yes concrete.

Presidential choices After the loyal toast, conversation among guests at the Queen’s Birthday soiree at the British Ambassador’s residence last week, quickly turned to local politics.

What was president-elect Ricardo Martinelli thinking of when he chose exiting deputy Rogelio Alba to be Governor of the Kunas? What was President Martin Torillo s thinking of when he endorsed Pedro Gonzales , a man wanted on murder charges by the US, as president of the National Assembly? Martnelli was saved by Alba’s resignation.