Porteños, Tell Us About Buenos Aires!
by Paula Alvarado, Buenos Aires on 08.28.07
Photo credit: Graham I. via Flickr.
(This is a post from the TH City Series. Find the rest here) Ever since the 2001 economic crash, Buenos Aires has been blooming as one of the most exciting cities in the continent. Often talked about as South America’s “little Paris”, Argentina’s capital has the perfect mix of Latin and European flavors and a cultural offer that matches those of the most developed cities in the world. Did you know, for example, that it holds more than 140 private and public museums (Wikipedia)? Or that the number of theaters in the city is one of the highest in the world?
With a population of over three million and thirteen million counting the suburbs, this is also one of the biggest cities in South America.
And even though Argentina is held responsible for some major eco-disasters (like the contamination in Rio de la Plata and the Matanza Riachuelo), in the last years the city has also seen develop many green designers, some green design events, and even recycling initiatives from the government. That's why we'd love that all of you Buenos Aires treehuggers told us about this amazing place.
A view towards the city's northern coast.
For example, we'd love to know what's the general level of eco-consciousness among the Buenos Aires population: Do people care about green and sustainability? Do you care? How's air quality? Do people recycle/compost? Is there any urban planning? Are green roofs something common?
Or in terms of transportation, How would you say Buenos Aires is for cyclists? Are you able to move around the city with a bike? What are the best places to go for a ride? We know the city has a massive bus system with more than 180 lines, most of which go around 24/7. How do you perceive public transportation? Suburban sprawl? Have you tried the new tramway in Puerto Madero?
San Martin square, in Retiro neighborhood.
As time passes, Are things getting better or worse? Have you heard about the green efforts of designers such as Silvina Romero, Martin Churba, Miki Friedenbach? Have you ever been to the design store at Malba Museum and seen these and other designers' work?
What about food? Do you shop at the organic market in Chacarita neighborhood? Have you ever been to any of the vegetarian/organic restaurants we've featured here and here? Do you feel the organic food offer is growing in the city?
Anything you think we might find interesting, please share it with us in the comments of this post. We hope to hear from you!
Museum of Latin American Art (Malba).
::Buenos Aires Government site ::Buenos Aires Wikipedia entry
I am a U.S. citizen and have been living here in Buenos Aires now for about nine years. My four year old son attends the Pestalozzi school in Belgrano. I have been talking with the director of the school about including environmental education for the children. I have donated Al Gore's documentary "An Inconvenient Truth" along with his book and they will begin incorporating them into their English and science programs. I'm hoping the documentary will help in motivating the students to organize green projects.
I believe education at schools is the best way to achieve long term green goals. If anyone has ideas about how to make this happen, please post.
I am a UK expat living in Buenos Aires. Any new initiative regarding recycling etc is welcome - I have, for the last 3 years, separated my own rubbish from dry / wet so the street cartoneros don't have to do the separating. Overall I don't believe the general public here cares much about green issues. Electricity is dirt cheap so they leave all the office lights on every night, for example (a situation which will no doubt change when the government suddenly stops subsidising electricity tariffs / when the natural gas shortage becomes critical). My boyfriend works in a restaurant and the workers think nothing of leaving the tap running forever. There is still an attitude that it is "hippy" to care about green issues. The article in Clarin cited in another article "Green-Food Offer Growing in Buenos Aires" by the same author says there is no market for organic meat here in Argentina because "they don't see it as a premium product" - which means they don't understand the basis and principles of organic production. I agree that awareness starts with education. Any grass roots effort done in schools etc is a sure way to influence the mindset. From a cynical point of view, any dramatic change however will come from some kind of crisis as it has been in the UK where gas prices are so high that not only is it morally appealing for people to be green conscious but also easy on the pocket. It does not help that the Argentines confess to always expect a doom scenario in the future so "there is no point in planning for the future" thus making any planning impossible, whether it be for health, business, economy, or sustainable agricultre and saving natural resources for the benefit of our children.
I second Tom's comment above.
Education is the only way to achieve long term goals.
As for the current situation in BA, I'm not very optimistic...
Riding a bike is a nightmare and our driving habits are amongst the worst in the world.
Our streets are polluted by old cars and it is very common to see public transportation exhausting black smoke...
As citizens, we lack a conscience of keeping our city clean and we just dump everything in the street if we don't find a trash can.
If we changed these inconveniences, BA could well deserve the title of "latin Paris", but I'm affraid this will take a major cultural shift from ourselves.
No doubt education will be a key to becoming a sustainable society.
I am an Argentinian living in the US, the middle of it, in Kentucky. Argentinians are a little bit green by necessity and culture. In the town where most of my family is from they still shop at the corner gorcery store and they take their own bag. Most of everybody uses public transportation, bike and even walk. There is no recylcing available but also there aren't many containers to dispose because the food does not come in boxes or cans. Even milk comes in a bag. Where i am going is that in Argentina most of the green behaviours we are trying to educate people about in the US are already there. Urban Planning is part of every city government. Buenos Aires is the city with more waste because it is the city with the most money. It is not a reflection of the country. And even the bigger Buenos Aires where things change drastically in 10 km. Just like Chicago is for the US.
Believe me, in KY only 10% recycle, and everybody thinks I am crazy because I bike to work. I am the hippiest hippy my friends have ever met!
Hello ! I'm argentinean living in La Plata, a city 30 miles away from Buenos Aires.
I Study art in BA so I travel a lot, and I can say that there's a strange mix between art, museums and great artists and professional, as there's discrimination, lack of opportunities, frustration and lonelyness.
There are 2 worlds in that enourmus city. The smallest goes to theatres, think green, eat green, the other can't affort to choose what to eat most of the time. Restaurant prices are going sky high for avarage citizens.
Well, concerning to the topic... There's not too much consideration for ecology and green alternatives...
People know of the diseases of the Riachuelo, but they don't care much about it, unless it's very close to them...
As Luis said... "is very common to see public transportation exhausting black smoke" and none seems to care for a change, as they keep accesible. All the bus lines get money from the goverment to keep their prices low but they don't fix the buses...
people "just dump everything in the street if we don't find a trash can." Not only in Buenos Aires, but in lots of cities, including La Plata.
There's not much of a green culture here, as a child we had good teachers that told us how to preserve the environment... but very few of us listened...
We prefer fast and cheap than not polutting
We always say that the goverment don't care about ecology, and it's true, but most of us don't care either...
Pulluted rivers or dissapearing glaciars are not news.
Reciclyng is not an issue on political debates
Where I live there's a campaign called "clean city" but ther's no reciclying plans at all, there's no difference between organic and not organic waste and we live near an oil treatment plan with no control, and corruption as an excuse.
But something it's going on in argentina... there was a land fill and lot's of people marched to close it... There's a paper factory near a beautiful river on the uruguay's side on the limit between Argentina and Uruguay and there are a lot of marches and protests with no stop, forcing the goverment to act as equal.
in this culture things work only if you protest, else there's no hope that politics do the right thing...
Buenos Aires is one of the most polluted places ive ever been to!! No vehicles are ever held to a standard. many or most cars have no mufflers, they ROAR and shake your room. public busses are the biggest disgrace ive ever seen, they spew massive clouds of black smoke and scream like air raid sirens.
I cannot emphasize enough the amount of street level fumes, and how thick it is. Noise and thick street level fumes, thats buenos aires.
Its not clear to me vehicles registered in the city are under the mayors control or whether its a federal issue. either way, drivers have cellphones with cameras, but often no headlights at all, no mufflers, and the police just stand there and do nothing.
Also, buenos aires has chosen never to consider an alternative source of drinking water. all the cities water comes from the highly polluted rio de la plata, the intake pylons are in palermo near the air port, well within city limits.
The governor of Buenos Aires province apparently allows factories and municipalities to pollute no holds barred! Im not sure if he profits directly from this or he thinks its ok to have laws, then ignore them. However, the Riachuelo is one of South Americas biggest disasters, threatening millions with disease.
The government responds with cheap talk.
I am an American spending a few months in Buenos Aires, and feel a little presumptuous responding to this since I've only been down here a couple weeks. But it's funny because just a few days ago, I was searching all of Treehugger's "Buenos Aires" tags looking for places where I can buy organic produce and also hoping that some of the incredible fashion here is green. I've sought out some of TH's recommendations, but it is definitely an effort to eat as I would at home in the U.S. There is no Whole Foods or farmers' markets that make grocery shopping fairly easy. I've yet to come across toilet paper--or anything, for that matter--made out of post-consumer product. On the other hand, I tend to think that all the conventional produce in the corner stores and super-markets is fairly local and is probably drenched with fewer pesticides than the equivalent conventional produce up north. I'm assuming this based on what I know about the economy here--I don't think the agricultural system is as industrialized and they can't afford to drive a tomato 1500 kilometers to get to a porteno market. Also, the carrots aren't all super-sized and actually have a variety of shapes, which tends to make me think that something more "natural" is going on with the way they grow food.
Based on my limited interactions thus far, I do agree with the previous commenters that there doesn't seem to be much of a green awareness here. They have had so much poltical turmoil that I can understand why environmental concerns probably seem extraneous or "hippy".
Personally, I feel a bit greener just because I am not driving the hundreds of miles a week I did in the U.S. The subway has been great for me, I hear the buses are good, and it is a very walkable city, so in that way I feel like my personal footprint has lowered being here.
Now for the imporant question: Is there ever going to be another Bs As Green Drinks? Let's make it happen!
buenos aires is in need of being sustainable.
the public transportation system, new alternatives of public transportation, housing, education,,,,everything!
who wants to do something there??
i am argentinian architect designer living in nyc.
let's do something in buenos aires!
Hi!
I'm really keen to respond to Tom Burton's comment!
Why? Well, I've just returned home to New Zealand after a 4 week school exchange in Buenos Aires at the Pestalozzi School! And amazingly, coincidentally, while I was there, the class I was in, were watching the Inconvenient Truth video as they were studying it in English! And as part of the post-analysis of the movie- the students came up with some really good ideas about potential environmental solutions for renewable energy in BA! Also, while I was there, I talked to the director (the lovely Claudia) about some major differences in environmental awareness in Buenos Aires compared to back home in New Zealand, so it is all very oppurtune that I should be surfing the internet for info about Buenos Aires environmental awareness (as I'm really interested in the environement) and see your comment! Look foward to your reply!
Mahoney, New Zealand
Hi!
I'm really keen to respond to Tom Burton'scomment!
Why? Well, I've just returned to new Zealand after a 4 week school exchange in Buenos Aires at the Pestalozzi School! And amazingly, coincidentally, while I was there, the class I was in, were watching the Inconvenient Truth video as they were studying it in English! And as part of the post-analysis of the movie- the students came up with some really good ideas about potential environmental solutions for renewable energy in BA! Also, while I was there, I talked to the director (the lovely Claudia) about some major differences in environmental awareness in Buenos Aires compared to back home in New Zealand, so it is all very oppurtune that I should be surfing the internet for info about Buenos Aires environmental awareness (as I'm really interested in the environement) and see your comment! Look foward to your reply!
Mahoney, New Zealand
I would like to contact Leandro from La Plata because I am in need of finding a local person who is aware of the possibility of living green in that ciy. I have a potential move there and I am concerned because my manner of living, especially my choice of natural and organic food, is VERY important for me and my family. How can I connect to learn more? Thank you!