(Prensa.com) The current image of the district of La Chorrera is not even a shadow of what it was this popular area of the country in the early twentieth century.
Dirt roads, mud houses and thatched roofs made up the landscape of what is now known as the Avenue of the Americas, the main commercial artery.
Over time this picture was disappearing to make way for growth in the area.
Witness the Felícito Estribí, who came to this area in 1967. Remember that CV was a small town where just built the first state bank sector, with several gardens and dance very small population.
The district of La Chorrera, the fourth most populous in the province of Panama with over 171 thousand inhabitants, begins to show signs of what awaits in the coming years: a center as modern and even more organized than San Miguelito and Panama . And without dams.
CV is known for its traditional foods and pastry chicheme pregnant. For many years the city was known as bedroom where his main commercial thoroughfare, the Avenue of the Americas, was full business which sells retail merchandise and all kinds of inputs.
However, the district began to come alive for less than 10 years for dozens of housing developments, and to make room for the development of new businesses and industries.
This awakening has been driven not only by the determination of its people. It has also been motivated by the frequent exodus Panamanians, mainly in the capital city, seeking to acquire from a residence in the west of the country at affordable prices hastaviviendas exceeding $ 150,000.
The figures from the Municipality of La Chorrera and support it. It has registered 35 projects are in urban-project under construction and to end-and 20 commercial and industrial developments, said Jose Alvarez, director of Municipal Engineering of La Chorrera.
He explains that in the past five years in La Chorrera “has been an explosion” of projects due to population growth.
The areas that are being developed in the district include the villages of Puerto Caimito, La Mitra, Santa Rita and Feuillet, are also growing The Mendozas, The Plough and Columbus neighborhood.
The advance is not only commercial and industrial, but also agriculture, specifically in rural areas as Cerro Cama, Arosemena, Obaldía and Hurtado, in the latter area are opening businesses poultry, dairy, pig and pineapples.
And you can not leave out other items that begin to develop, as the entrance of the district and Lemon Chase Fountain where major shopping malls are built.
For example, in Lemon stands the Costa Verde Boulevard shopping center, with a vision to fill a void with suitable infrastructure for satisfying entertainment services, and commercial areas to the growing demand from the west of the province of Panama, says Marianne Sasson Lezama, project manager Projects, a company that carries out the work.
Investment in Costa Verde Boulevard is approximately $ 18 million and is built over an area greater than five acres.
The executive explained that will house 90 shops and anchor stores such as supermarkets King, Do It Center, Panafoto, pharmacies Arrocha Lumicentro and McDonald’s.
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DEVELOPMENT. Costa Verde Boulevard The project will have 90 stores. PRESS / Ivan Uribe |
Trade Grows
For several years in La Chorrera branches began to settle business that traditionally were in town.
Entrepreneurs have set their sights on the sector as a new growth pole, with car franchises, fast food, hardware stores, pharmacies, furniture, cement and other factories.
“It’s looking CV by urban growth and that this population has needs that is coming,” says Alvarez. Some estimate that between 60% and 70% of the population of La Chorrera works in the capital city and has purchasing power.
So Jesus understands Bardisa Abad, the owner of the bakery La Lupita, trade with 39 years of operations in the district.
Bardisa chorreranos says that working in the city were shopping in the metropolis because they had no opportunity to do so in his district. However, the business sector has understood that this market can be met without their journey to the city population.
“As long as you have a population with capital and you can buy things in Panama, why not give them equal in their district,” he says.
Reefer Valentino, president of the Chamber of Commerce, Industries and Agriculture of La Chorrera, said almost all the needs of the population are covered chorrerana in the district so that residents do not have the need to travel to the city.
In his opinion it is necessary to renew the trade to stay competitive in ranges, because that minimizes customers to go to other areas, Reefer adds.
“We have to change the mindset that we are no longer a people, but a modern district where the middle class is moving,” he says.
The entrepreneur believes that both the government and private enterprise must strive to modernize the Avenue of the Americas and make it more colorful, and that those who pass through the highway to make a stop at this boundary.
Needs
In the same way that the population has been growing chorrerana increase their basic needs. Among them, garbage collection and water supply are issues that concern both the public and the commercial sector.
Both sides agree that the service provided by the company responsible for garbage collection, Metropolitan Sanitation Company, SA (Emas), was good, but now has deteriorated.
Saul Martinez is 27 years old and lives in the El Hatillo. Says that a major problem in the district is garbage. He explains that in the case of the area where she lives, the garbage is collected every two weeks even though his residence is in the center.
He points out that three years this problem has been getting worse by the lack of equipment for harvesting. This argument was supported Melvis Antonio Peláez, watch shop owner Peláez Brothers, located on Avenida Las Americas.
This also ensures Benigno Carreiro, head of the furniture The Chorrerana, located in the same sector.
The issue of garbage to Carreiro also concerned because many defaulting without paying the waste collection rate, which affects the service provided by the company responsible for such work.
To Bardisa, bakery La Lupita, the garbage problem is serious because the scene aesthetic subtracted, since in some sectors “are small ‘pataconcitos”.
But the president of the Chamber of Commerce, Industries and Agriculture of La Chorrera, Valentino Reefer, not only concerned about the situation in the trash. Capsizing fills gaps in the provision of water services.
The authorities should be aware that as the population grows so too will the demand for these basic services. “I think that lack of planning.”
Another issue that closely follows the guild is the ease of transportation for the residents of La Chorrera working in the capital city.
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TRANSFER. Transportation is one of the issues of concern to the public and employers. PRESS / Ivan Uribe |
Reefer says it is necessary to analyze the possibility of building a third bridge over the Panama Canal to give greater traffic flow, especially in the morning when people move west sector of the city and its return in hours later. “In two years it will be late if we do this. The authorities should see clearly how it will design the entrance and exit to this area of the country due to the growth we are seeing, “he says.
On the subject of water, Maximino Quintero, regional director of the Institute of Aqueducts and Sewers (Idaan) in Western Panama, says that the distribution of water in La Chorrera is satisfied through the water treatment plant of The Mendozas, which accommodates production of 40 million gallons per day, of which consume 32 million gallons daily between CV and Resume.
In La Chorrera is serving around 60,000 people, but the official acknowledged that there are still some areas for supplying the liquid as The Doradilla in Guadalupe, Potrero Grande in El Coco de La Chorrera, Llano Largo in Playa Leona and miter. An estimated 20,000 people in the population that will get drinking water.
For Llano Largo, miter and Potrero Grande, used rural water systems (wells). The objective is to draw Idaan projects in those areas to replace them with a piping system to receive the supply of water treatment plants and Las Mendozas Resume in rehabilitation for two years.
It is estimated that the latter plant will be able to distribute 10 million gallons of water per day.
In the case of The Weight, The Doradilla, Potrero Grande and plow is expected to make a public tender for the supply of drinking water, and that by June of this year and are awarded the works to have the order to proceed to the middle of next year, these works are completed.
With all these ongoing projects and forthcoming conclusion, the west of Panama Idaan expected to meet the above areas and the incorporation of new areas due to population growth in the district.
What was decades CV’s in the past. Forecasts suggest that the ancient city bedroom definitive awakening began an economic boom that prevents many residents traveling to the capital for the day. Poor Panama City, what to expect with the absence of thousands of chorreranos!.
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HOUSING. Growth has driven CV building new developments. La Prensa / Ivan Uribe |