Revitalizing the Heart of the City: The Proposed Move of the Gallery to Plaza Carlos Albán

At the beginning of October, during a session of the Seventh Commission of the Senate of the Republic, held in Santander de Quilichao, the mayor of Popayán, Juan Carlos Muñoz Bravo, said, among other things: “We are looking to present a project Macro of Bolívar neighborhood gallery, which is the epicenter of the peasant economy; Today we want to present a project of almost 56,000 million pesos to moving the gallery from the Bolívar neighborhood from where it is located to Albán Park and make a gallery three floors where we can provide an ideal place for those who sell their products there, but above all for the gastronomy which is a UNESCO prize in our city.”

I do not know, Mayor, if you know that this discussion has already taken place with legal arguments. I tell you that in February 2017, the municipal administration at the time “El Cambio”, which also did not change anything, came up with the idea of ​​temporarily moving the gallery from the neighborhood of Bolívar to Plaza Carlos Albán, while it was being repaired . , which wasn’t either.

Considering such an initiative, the The bell newspaper He reminded him that since it is a public asset (Carlos Albán Square), its destination could only be changed with authorization from the Popayán Council, and that giving it such use would be committing an illegal act. As far as I know, the councilors have no idea about Muñoz Bravo’s new ‘initiative’.

For the already mentioned government of César Cristian Gómez Castro (2016 – 2019), this portal reminded the decision T-575/11 of the Constitutional Court, which says: “Goods for public consumption are themselves subject to a special legal regime and these are those goods. which is intended for the use, enjoyment and enjoyment of the community and, therefore, is at its service permanently, with the restrictions established by the legal system and the competent authority that regulates its use. Examples of this type of goods are the streets, the squares, the parks, the bridges, the pathsetc., and before them the State simply performs a function of protection, administration, maintenance and financial support. Similarly, assets for public use appear in the Constitution as those assets that are treated specially, as they are considered inalienable, non-seizable and non-writable. Goods for public use are non-negotiable, that is, they cannot be negotiated because they are outside of trade considering the utility they provide for the common good, therefore, no legal action can be taken regarding them. This feature has two main consequences: being undeniable and non-prescriptible. Inviolability means that the ownership of public property cannot be transferred to any person; and irrevocability is understood as the phenomenon that ownership of assets cannot be obtained for public use due to the passage of time, in the sense that a collective and social interest must exist. Therefore, its purpose is the conservation of the public domain as a whole, as it is contrary to logic that assets intended for the public use of the residents can be home to private rights. From a legal point of view, individuals cannot occupy the public assets of the Nation unless they have a license or temporary occupation permit,” the Court says.

For many years now, the so-called Avenida de Los Estuiantes was “privatized,” taken over by dealers from Bolívar’s neighborhood gallery. What you see are “warehouses” where they store the products.

In addition, Law 9 of 1989 would be breached, in terms of the definition of a public place, a concept which applies to the Carlos Alban Squarea name given in memory of this important Payan scientist, who was a mathematician, inventor, soldier, doctor and surgeon, journalist, lawyer and civil engineer, so it is unfortunate that today it has been transformed into a market square, that it is the extension of the Barrio Bolívar gallery, from which baskets and sacks with fruit, vegetables and other products have also left, to the streets of the historic center of Popayán, without the administrations of this town being able to establish order, organize those markets, improve its infrastructure, fighting evil and other serious problems that exist within that gallery, where there are many street dwellers, some revivalists have been benefiting from this municipal property for many years. Nobody has or doesn’t want to ring the cat.

Little by little the kitchens, called “Mesa Larga”, took over inside the gallery of the neighborhood of Bolívar, replacing the sellers of fruits, vegetables, flowers, etc. to the streets and the platforms.

It is incredible that a public space, such as Carlos Albán’s Bicentennial Plaza, which was intended to improve the sector, with the urban renewal project of Barrio Bolívar, for the enjoyment of citizens, a work in which a significant investment was made, today it has been transformed into a chaotic market square another, space for loading and unloading products, parking for forklifts, stair buses and motorbikes. Mayor, the “the lord of the pedestrian statue”, does not represent a “doll“, corresponds to the Payan scientist, Carlos Albán, in whose memory it was erected and which should be a highly respected site, especially by the first authority of the municipality who, apparently, is unaware of the actions of such an important person.

Furthermore, Plaza Carlos Albán is not a technically possible place to use for the proposed transfer, due to the high tonnage transported in the gallery, due to the lack of roads, loading and unloading areas for products that hinder the circulation of the sector that.

Similarly, the public transport system cannot continue to be blocked by traders who spread their goods on the roads, even with their trucks. Several local administrations have gone by, completely neophytes when it comes to urban planning. The studies that must exist on the dusty shelves of the Mayor’s Office in the neighborhood of Bolívar, propose a comprehensive urban renewal of the sector, including the gallery, which became a wholesale center, when it should not be, therefore, it’ n necessary that this activity leave the city centre, as it was thought, as the market square was not considered a collection centre. Even if cancel the Avenida de Los Estuiantes which could unblock that sector, if taken for years by the vendors who, in turn, were displaced from inside the gallery to make room for the kitchens, sundries, foods, among other businesses, which also need to be organised.

The platforms of Plaza Carlos Albán are now an extension of the gallery in the Bolívar neighborhood.

There is no need to transfer a problem to create another, there are studies, it is the duty of the administration to review them, update them and develop a true urban renewal project which, of course, includes a modern, organized and tidy gallery that attract tourism, in May the seller, the peasant, be dignified, who can not follow the sun and the water, with perishable products on dirty sacks on the ground. Nor does the buyer have to keep jumping from pool to pool and dodging mud when it rains, and through dust in the summer. The lack of hygiene is total, and so the so-called folk squares have emerged, which have taken away customers from the galleries belonging to the municipality and from which they derive taxes and rents from them.

Clothes auction, on another platform in Plaza Albán.

He is not thinking of a three-story gallery, as Felipe Fabián Orozco Vivas (RIP) also proposed when he took office as Mayor, but rather a gallery that obeys new needs, with order, hygiene and technology. How many administrations have passed without the renewal of the Bolívar neighborhood coming to fruition? The little that has been done, like Plaza Carlos Albán, is being destroyed. Mayor, if you have to step on calluses, do it.

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