It is 9:00 am and in the center of the street, instead of cars, people can be seen walking under the morning sun that is beginning to suffocate. On the banks of what used to be the central lanes, multiple colorful flowers attract butterflies and insects and small trees allow us to imagine the shade that there will be in the future.
That is what the residents of the so-called “wide street” (93rd street) of Freses, in Curridabat, which runs from the Fidélitas University to the train line, in front of the station of the Federated College of Engineers, now have in view. and Architects (CFIA).
But this scenario has been like this for relatively recently. Until about five years ago, this was nothing more than an ordinary street, paved and hot, but particularly wider than any residential road, hence its popular name. In fact, the street is that size because it was contemplated as part of the second ring road, a project that never saw the light of day. It has not even been possible to close the first ring of this road yet.
Seeing this reality, the neighbors had the concern to transform their wide street. That was the starting point.
Montes de Oca will convert Los Yoses Boulevard into a small biological corridor
Chronicle of an announced boulevard
copied!
“Everything arose when seeing such a gigantic street stuck in a residential area and with little traffic (…). It started as a dream that was to transform the street”, said Roberto León, community leader of the Freses neighborhood.
The street was not only hot and gray, but also unsafe: muggings and used for drag racing and driving lessons.
One of the ideas that came up was to create a boulevard, so the neighbors began to look for references from other parts of the world and professional help. They went to the Tándem architecture studio and to the Municipality of Curridabat. The local government accepted the project and paid for a participatory process that produced a first design prepared by Tándem.
When the idea of building a boulevard was ripe, they created the “Boulevard Freses” Facebook page, which has since served as the main platform for disseminating information about the project, which has been developed in stages over the years.
The first stage consisted of delimiting the boulevard in the center of the street with only yellow lines painted on the asphalt. This was intended to study the behavior of drivers. Some respected the demarcation and avoided encroaching on the demarcated area, but most did not.
The second stage was born within the community itself: the colored pots. The neighbors organized themselves to create pots and plant trees in them, which they placed on the edges of the demarcated area, with which they wanted to start appropriating the space.
This initiative attracted other actors. Students from public and private universities, the National Laboratory of Materials and Structural Models (Lanamme), among others, came to make interventions and studies.
“With this project (the flowerpots) we were able to pressure the ‘Muni’ to continue supporting us, to move from the temporary nature of the flowerpot to something more permanent,” León commented.
The third stage came this year. The Municipality of Curridabat began the long-awaited intervention: parts of the asphalt of the street were broken to plant trees on the ground and no longer in pots, beginning to outline what will be the final boulevard.
“Islands” of 20 planted trees have been created, among which are species such as the yellow bark, the savannah oak and the lorito. In the future, the trees will create a biological corridor that will be added to the neighborhood parks and the river that runs through the area.
These efforts follow the methodology of tactical urbanism, which is characterized as a collaborative process to recover public space and study the behavior of citizens.
The next phase, which will take place this year, will be the placement of urban furniture to create rest areas along the nascent boulevard, a process in which another actor intervenes: the Yamuni Tabush Foundation, which will donate all the furniture valued at $28,000.
High material prices bury construction growth
“We are thinking about tables, chairs, benches and quoting to see if it is possible to have pergolas. We are waiting for the Municipality to present us with supplier proposals”, explained Andrea Terán, director of Programs for the Elderly Person of the Foundation, which focuses on developing projects to create friendly cities with this sector of the population.
The Foundation is part of a network of friendly cities with older adults, made up of 20 municipalities, and is currently working on projects in three cantons: Tibás, Montes de Oca and Curridabat.
In Freses they got involved at the invitation of the Municipality. In 2019, they began a walkability diagnosis for older adults in that canton, whose action plan has already been presented to the local Municipal Council. The lack of pedestrian infrastructure is the main pain point for this population, according to Terán.
In addition, another step of the boulevard will be to join the current islands of trees with cords of vegetation to completely enclose the central part. While that happens, the neighbors will continue to cover the empty edges with pots.
In the center will go a path for pedestrians and cyclists. “We went from having a completely abandoned, gray and dead street, to having a sustainable, accessible, green space,” said the community leader.
Thus, the street will be shared: pedestrians, bicycles and cars at low speed, following the new paradigm pursued by other cities, mainly in Europe. For León, this will be the most complete street in the country.
Dogs are allowed: this is the Pet Friendly life of the Ticos
Although they have had the support of the local government, the neighbors continue to press persistently for the project to be completed and ask the Municipality to maintain what exists until today, mainly in summer.
The boulevard that is being built is based on that initial design that serves as a reference, but along the way it has been restated. The total cost has not been updated. That draft of 2018 estimated an investment of ¢2,000 million, but possibly it will be more due to the inflation of these years.
“It is a very high cost, for which it has not been possible to develop everything. That is why it is important to develop these stages of tactical urban planning to monitor behavior and see if it is positive to invest that amount of money,” said Martín Umaña, Road Management Engineer of the Municipality of Curridabat.
The project is now in the hands of the local government, so its progress depends on the available budget. The Municipality estimates about three or four more years to complete the 530-meter boulevard. Meanwhile, the neighbors will continue to persist in their dream.
The boulevard not only adds more aesthetic value and quality of life for the inhabitants of Freses, but it also has an economic edge: it will raise the value of the surrounding properties due to a general improvement of the environment.
“It greatly improves the quality of public space, reduces the possibility of being involved in a road incident, improves air quality, the landscape… It is a more enjoyable space,” Umaña said.
Neighbors are also sure that the value of their properties will increase in the future. In the surroundings there are lots that are quoted at high prices. There are already cases of people who come to live in the area only through the boulevard.
Currently, the land use of the street is residential, but the truth is that it has great commercial potential: to the north it has bus connections and to the south a nearby train station; it is within walking distance of universities and offices. The boulevard will probably attract investment.
León indicated that a majority of residents want the area to remain residential, although others differ and want to see commercial growth. Even the community leader welcomes setting up tables for shops along the boulevard.
The truth is that the change in land use is a power of the municipalities. In the case of Curridabat, its government is changing the philosophy of the cantonal regulatory plan, directing it towards transport-oriented design, densification and mixed land uses. Although Umaña did not specify that it is being considered for that street, since it is not the task of his department, he mentioned that “it has all the variables” so that a conversion to mixed use can take place.
Curridabat is today one of the most attractive cantons for construction. Projects like Aleste, a mixed-use complex, and others in areas like Guayabos or Granadilla have been built or have been completed in recent years. Even in Freses apartment towers have been built.
Sustainable construction is not expensive and returns investment, experts say
These phenomena and commercial development, however, frequently cause residents of yesteryear to flee, as has happened in other areas of the city. That is why community organization is key.
Freses Boulevard can be a seed that germinates in other communities. León encouraged other neighborhoods to organize, knock on doors and take action. “It doesn’t matter if they don’t have a municipal permit, that first step helps put pressure on the ‘Muni’ and other sectors,” he said.
In Freses, their neighbors will continue to create pots and organize themselves to improve their neighborhood. In a few years, the face of the street will change with a pedestrian-friendly central space, with areas to rest in the shade of the colorful trees.
