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Medellin, Colombia- A model for Panama | Eye On Panama
Recently my two American buddies and I were in Medellin looking for a cheap, local apartment for them to rent. We had just spent four hours trudging up and down the steep hillsides of Medellin. My feet were sore. My stomach was empty. I was tired and fatigued.
Thankfully, a green metro bus came into view. I began frantically waving down the bus, I yelled "Espera, espera, espera!!!" "Hustle guys, we have to get on this one." We began running like three hobos trying to jump on the last box car heading west.
We climbed aboard but this was no box car nor was it an ancient dilapidated bus. This bus was part of Medellin's modern transportation system. Our bus was new. It was clean. We reveled in the air conditioning as we settled into the lightly padded seats. We had just entered Medellin's state of the art transportation system. This is a system designed to allow and encourage Medellin's residents to intermingle anywhere in the city regardless of social class or economic circumstances.
Our bus takes us to Metro Plaza on the northern side of the city. Metro Plaza could be a destination all in itself. The plaza is dotted with street vendors selling everything from empenadas to tulips. A picturesque fountain spouts water high into the air. Medellin has an integrated transportation system. Our bus tickets double as metro tickets allowing us to efficiently bypass ticket counters and head seamlessly straight to the loading platforms. We board a state of the art light rail system that runs north and south. It intersects with two cable gondola car lines running east and west high up into the hillsides to the poorer barrios. We smoothly transferred from the metro to the gondola and began our ascent high into the hills. The panoramic 360 degree view of the city is nothing short of spectacular.
Our destination was a modern public works library, one of the five recently constructed in Medellin. The gondola drops us off a short walking distance away from the abstractly shaped library. However, as impressive as the library is, it's function and that of the other newly constructed libraries, is even more impressive.
These libraries with their beauty, their auditoriums, their Internet rooms, day care centers and art galleries are at the center of Medellin's effort to remake it's society. They are magnets to bridge the gulf between rich and poor, between the privileged and the disenfranchised. By placing the most beautiful buildings in the poorest neighborhoods. By investing in a modern city wide transportation system and by investing in new schools Medellin intends to draw people together and help the poor develop the skills that the future requires.
My trip to Medellin provided us a glimpse of a model that could be quite beneficial to Panama. President Martinelli has placed education and transportation high on the agenda for his administration. The Medellin model takes advantage of the synergies that can arise from treating public works, education and transportation as part of a comprehensive plan rather than separate problems to be individually solved.
Panama has some great schools, but they are too few. The cultural and intellectual magnets called for by the Medellin model will undoubtedly result in more opportunities to obtain a quality education. An integrated, efficient transportation system connecting these magnets to each other and the center should result in a more cohesive and engaged society. A society that feels it has a voiced in the future of Panama.
Panama has the resources to implement a Panamanian version of the Medellin model. If the Martinelli administration has the will to implement this model and the discipline to avoid the infighting and efficiency of the prior administration, Panama can look forward to a future that benefits all Panamanians.
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Originally Posted by BEL-AIR 
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