Bogota is a Warzone

It’s not of course but, I wanted to be able to write a positive blog about Bogota, its cafes, cultured citizenry, tree-lined parks, mountains and activities, but I kept coming back to this one point that has me, a resident here of going on five years and many other Bogotanos, furious to the point of despair. It is the issue of the construction and expansion of the city’s Transmilenio bendy bus system that leaves us both speechless and powerless. As a city, we are disenfranchised.

Bogota is a warzone, and not for the venomous and poorly researched image provided for us by that utterly dreadful cinematic offering, Mr. & Mrs. Smith, but for the chaos created by bureaucratic slovenliness and corruption that has plagued the most recent city administration. These are my words, paraphrased from articles published far and wide and most recently in the Economist magazine.

The Transmilenio system, when it was launched in 2000 was heralded as forward thinking solution and seen as a way that overly congested, contaminated and chaotic cities in the developing world such as Bogota could find their footing towards the 21^st century and create a more livable, inclusive and manageable model. And at first, it was great. Journey times from the center of the city, from the Museo del Oro to the north were minimal in comparison to the trancones or gridlock of buses on the Avenida Caracas. One could enjoy a seat and arrive at a meeting on time.

Yet, in reality the Transmilenio was already flawed. The buses aren’t large enough for the quantity of passengers, they are polluting and are not run on renewable energy, they play host to pickpockets and bag snatchers at all hours, the stations are now too small, the cement used in their lanes is supposedly of inferior quality giving rise to constant intrusive and delaying maintenance and the fee for one journey at COP$1,700 is too high for the average Bogotano.

Now, the proposed evolution of this service provides too little too late. It was the easy way out for the current Mayor of Bogota Samuel Moreno to approve extensions to the Transmilenio system and therefore try and see this through without too much notice of what is really needed, a metro system. Put together, an integrated bus, metro and transmilenio system would make Bogota one of the most accessible cities on the planet, but like the three legs of a tripod, take one away or even, lend it less attention and the whole contraption collapses. This is what has happened…and how?

Well, there are the alleged cases of corruption that implicate the highest levels in the Mayor’s office, there was the issue of the country’s worst winter that hampered building efforts, there is nepotism and last of all, all too apparently, everything has been done in a halfhearted manner.

Arriving into Bogota’s El Dorado airport used to be a pleasant if not gentle introduction to Colombia, now it is nothing short of an extreme sport. The Calle 26 which connects the airport to the rest of the city is basically up on bricks. Taxis weave in and out of bollards, blue netting defines the lanes, there are open pits next to piles of clay, workers stand around as if unsure of their orders and the traffic is horrendous rendering what should be a 25 minute journey into the Candelaria from the airport into an hour long melee of bus fumes and mayhem. And how about this, now your taxi has to be rerouted due to the never ending building work through perhaps one of Bogota’s most notorious and dangerous neighborhoods. I‘ll not tell you which barrio this is, you’ll see it on the way in. How about that for first impressions of the city.

And you know what? Everything was supposed to be ready for the U20 World Cup in July and August 2011. Not a chance. So now, the eyes of the world can rest upon the inefficiency of those in charge. And shortly, the mayhem that has made entering and exiting the center of the city almost impossibility is set to be wrought upon Bogota’s most transited Avenida. From May 2011 there is going to be work done to the Avenida Septima to create what has been dubbed as a “Transmilenio Light”. I guess this means that it is going to be one lane, take less time to build and will be the transport equivalent of sugar-free coke, ultimately underwhelming and lacking punch. We have been presented the plans; yet, nothing seems clear, perhaps there is something the powers that be are not telling us or, perhaps, those in charge are just as unsure as well and blindly push through projects to the most convenient contractor.

Bogotanos are furious, campaigns have been launched on the ubiquitous Facebook and an independent website created for a peaceful revolution on March 23. In October there are Mayoral elections all about Colombia, not least in Bogota. It as if the locals have given up on the present official. But, there remain still six and a half months for Moreno and his administration to further damage Bogota in his attempt to right the wrongs already committed.