Havana: Tourist Industry v. Artifact City

HAVANA Tourist Industry vs. Artifact City A Sam Fox School of Design Independent Research Project

by Christine Doherty, MArch + MUD

HAVANA: Tourist Industry vs. Artifact City

CUBA

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A Revolutionary Dichotomy Institutionalizing the Rural Economic Fall

HAVANA

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Municipalities of a Region Development of Tourism Spatial Preference

EL CENTRO

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Emergent Response Vehicular Routes + Plaza + Parks Pedestrian Routes Points of Interest + Districts Wifi + Informality

PHOTO JOURNAL

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SOURCES

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CUBA A REVOLUTIONARY DICHOTOMY Cuba is one-party communist state that outlaws political pluralism, represses dissent, and severely restricts freedoms of the press, assembly, speech, and association. The dictatorship of the Castro Regime continues with President Miguel DĂ­az-Canal, who was appointed by Raul Castro in 2018. DĂ­az-Canal is to continue monopolizing the bulk of economic activity within centralized and inefficient state enterprises.1 Political freedoms remain unacknowledged, the twotier economy inequitable, and the totalitarian state lives on.

The agenda of the Fidel Castro in 1959 intended to undo the one-man rule of Fulgencio Batista, but over just a few decades of military-run control strained the relationship of people to government. Castro opened opportunities, but under a strict agenda of conformity to the Communist State with violence as the enforcer.

Archivo Cuba, an anti-Castro organization, estimates that between 1950 and 2016, close to 4,000 people were executed on the premise of political dissidence.2 Over 1 million left the island seeking refuge in United States in the same time period.3 Cuba is no socialist country, but one that operates with the effective machinery of repression.

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CUBA INSTITUTIONALIZING THE RURAL Before Castro’s Revolution in 1959, the country had a literacy rate below 60%, and Fidel promised to transform Cuba to 100% literacy in 2 years. By the end of 1961, the Revolutionary Government changed the literacy rate to 96%, one of the highest in the word.

Education was made free and public, and now Cuba has 47 universities.

Fidel’s tactic to education Cuba was to institutionalize the rural. He sent women to educate farmers, and established higher education facilities in proximity to rural territory. Currently Cuba has the second highest number of licensed doctors in the world, just after Italy.

Cuba’s lack of private education facilities still provides incredible opportunities for Cubans to advance their career. The only requirement is one year of military service and one year of social service in which the government decides the salary.

Yet the benefit of an education country lies in a diverse economy--a promise Fidel made but could not fulfill.

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CUBA ECONOMIC FALL Cuba has a planned economy of state-run enterprises.

Post - Revolution, Fidel Castro nationalized all foreign owned territories and rid the conditions for income taxation. The US operated land in Cuba at the time, and demanded to be compensated for their loss.

When offered an amount much lower that its value, the US threatened to cut the quota of sugar purchased from the island. The Soviet Union stepped in and guaranteed to buy the remnant sugar in return for storing military goods in Cuba.4 Fidel promised an economy rid of foreign dependence, a renewed agrarian society, one with diversified crops and land usage. When contracting with the Soviet Union, Cuba did not free itself from dependence for a self-building economy, but continued the preRevolution standard with a one-crop economy. The Soviet Union was not aiding Cuba, but exploiting it with subsidized prices in a currency only valuable in the Soviet Bloc Common Market [COMECON].5 An education agenda should benefit any country, but with an industry dependent on one source with one buyer, a study of humanities can hardly be seen as equally valuable. A similar relationship continues in the new millennium with Cuba’s recent primary industry: tourism.

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Cuba GDP Growth

Deteriorating Infrastructure

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HAVANA MUNICIPALITIES OF A REGION Havana is the capital city, the largest city, province, major port, and leading commercial center of Cuba.

The city has a population of 2.1 million inhabitants, and it spans a total of 781.58 km2 [301.77 sq. mi.] making it the largest city by area, the most populous city, and the fourth largest metropolitan area in the Caribbean region.

The city is the center of the Cuban government, and home to various ministries, headquarters of businesses and over 90 diplomatic offices. The current mayor is Marta Hernรกndez of the Communist Party of Cuba.

In 2009, the city had the third highest income in the country.

Both Havana and Cuba depend on tourism for their primary industry, and the government reported 2017 was a record year with 4.7 million visitors to the country, generating about $3 billion for the economy.

The city of Havana receives about 1 million annually.

The growing tourist industry attracts many Cubans across the county. Driving a taxi can earn as much as $40 a month, the same wage as a licensed doctor in a city with an average wage of $20 a month. 6

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Playa Plaza de la Revoluciรณn Centro Habana La Habana Vieja Regla

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La Habana del Este Guanabacoa San Miguel del Padrรณn Diez de Octubre Cerro

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Marianao La Lisa Boyeros Arooya Naranja Cotorro

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HAVANA DEVELOPMENT OF TOURISM Post-Revolution came with the US Trade Embargo on the island, and tourism dropped considerably for several decades. In the late 1970s Fidel Castro changed his oppositional stance to tourism and in 1982, the Cuban government passed a foreign investment code which opened a number of sectors, tourism included, to foreign capital.

Peso Convertible, or CUC, is pegged to the US dollar 1:1. The original Cuban Peso, or CUP, is pegged at 25:1 CUC. Cubans are paid in CUP but those who work within tourism have access to the same amenities as tourists.

Those working outside tourism are trapped in a de-valued economic system.

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Rebuilding Havana’s hotels came through the creation of firms to open foreign investment. In 1980, the country received only 130,000 tourists. By the end of the decade, the number increased to 326,000, and the Cuban government introduced a second currency, Peso Convertible in 1994.

Raul Castro came to power in 2008, and with a failing economy he introduced a number of reforms that would re-introduce foreign investment, allow for private business ownership, and separation of state and business functions. Tourism is now Cuba’s primary economic source.7

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HAVANA SPATIAL PREFERENCE Havana did not expand geographically until the turn of the 20th century. Most of the population remained in Habana Vieja, El Centro, and Vedado, the oldest parts of the city, which include a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Yet even with the influx of foreign investment, these central districts are not receiving equal benefit because the underlying infrastructure is owned by government [water, streets, data]. Habana Vieja, the original town and cruise port, and Vedado, the emerging upper-middle class neighborhood, are receiving the majority of renovations and investment.

The in-between is El Centro, a neighborhood with no historical landmarks or shoreline access, just lowerclass Cubans who try to find their role in the growing economy flanking two sides. Habana Vieja and Vedado may be better suited spatially for touristic invenstment, but the city is using its infrastructure to reiterate this preference of design.

Calle del Obispo in Habana Vieja has been recently fully pedestrianized, with repaved streets, new facades, wifi hotspots, and regular service.

Other streets throughout Habana Vieja and Vedado have received the same treatment, leaving El Centro practically untouched.

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EL CENTRO EMERGENT RESPONSE The four maps on the next pages will explain the layers behind this spatial preference, and the responding emerging urbanism. While the formal design of the center city has been catered to tourists and the Convertible Peso economy, the Cubans between the spaces have created an intermittent economy, one that lies between elite foreign capitalism and a stagnant economy.

The process of mapping routes, landmarks, data, and emergent economies came from counting pedestrian flow through various streets, marking the usage of public spaces and internet usage, and interviewing informal business within the streetscape. What emerged was a pattern of flow from El Centro outwards, and potential opportunity for the well-utilized routes to become well-designed spaces.

The overall findings were 4 major pedestrian routes, 5 ephemeral districts, 11 public-use wifi hotspots, and a number of street businesses.

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EL CENTRO VEHICULAR ROUTES + PLAZAS + PARKS Havana has 5 forms of public transit, since many Cubans do not own private vehicles. There are 2 public bus companies, taxis which are primarily used by tourists, and a train which is adequately used for regional transport, all owned by the government.

The most local form of public transit is the bike taxi, privately owned by each bike owner, and used by tourists and locals alike to cross neighborhoods for a few pesos. The routes shown follow the local buses, and car usage.

However Cubans within the city center tend to walk to their places of interest, and minimal vehicular traffic means informally-created pedestrian streets for Cubans, especially in El Centro.

Because Habana Vieja is the oldest part of the entire city, it has several historical plazas which have been modified for preservation, in addition to the creation of several small parks. The Capital is considered to be the center of the city, and the formal of boundary of Habana Vieja to El Centro. The experiential boundary is further west, as street repair and restaurant establishment extends beyond the neighborhood boundaries. In El Centro, there are no historically significant plazas to repair, or major draws for tourists.

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EL CENTRO PEDESTRIAN ROUTES The routes shown were found by mapping the amount of people traversing either east-west, or north-south, at particular times of the day, 9 am, 1 pm, and 6 pm.

By spending the times at different streets each day, a common route was quickly discovered for amenities and atmosphere located along street, not for the quality of route, as many of the streets were in need of repair.

Two major east-west routes were found, El Malecón along the waterfront, and El Neptuno, a commercial street catered to Cuban Peso prices. Two other heavily-utilized routes were found in Calle Obispo and Paseo de Martí, another pedestrian boulevard.

While the latter two are smaller vectors, they are used by tourists and Cubans alike.

For this reason, only those routes of the 4 discovered have repaired streets and adequate infrastructure upkeep to the surrounding buildings. Even along El Malecón, a means for tourist to go from Habana Vieja to Vedado, several dilapidated buildings are close to being in crumbles.

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Calle de Obispo Paseo de Martí Calle Neptuno El Malecón

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EL CENTRO POINTS OF INTEREST + DISTRICTS Given that employment occurs all across the center city, the icons mapped were decided by their prominence architecturally as a symbol, intensity of use, and for being a named geographic locater [e.g. 5 blocks from the capital]. In addiction to historical icons and major tourist destinations, major hospitals and the University of Havana were drawn, as they both create heavy foot traffic throughout the day.

Once the routes and icons had been identified, areas around particular instances intensified with formal and informal entrepreneurship. Just north of University of Havana, around Neptuno, are several small and medium restaurants, many of which are under 5 years old, and offer prices in both Cuban Peso and Convertible Peso.

South of Neptuno, in what seems to be residential void of commercialism, has quite a number of Casas Particulares, Cuba’s own version of AirBnB. These home owners are taking advantage of tourism by offering lodging prices much lower than those in Habana Vieja or Vedado.

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University of Havana Hospital Capital Tourist Attraction

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EL CENTRO WIFI + INFORMALITY Between the routes, interest points, and new districts, the final layers to be mapped were those unseen, layers which are not objects in space but experienced in reality. The intention to map these qualitative elements was not to expose error within the two-tier economy, but to expose the opportunities within the recreation of the city. The government has set up the infrastructure, and now its people are filling its spaces to suit their needs. Internet and its access may still be limited, but the potential for Havana lies between its seen and unseen infrastructure, and manifests in a collective capitalism.

Given Neptuno as a major pedestrian route with its endpoints of established anchors, its foot traffic never ceases. This includes the eye of the government which prevents certain activities from taking place.

However, just two streets up suffices for a small street business, like Esteban who repairs shoes with only a doorway step and sidewalk.

Single-person set ups is the primary tactic for unlicensed street vendors, save for the informal produce markets. These were located in close proximity to tourist-geared food shops, for the quality of food increases greatly from a neighborhood with no tourism industry.

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Other examples include other forms of service, women selling flowers, a single fruit or vegetable, and both men and women selling wifi access code cards, the element which brings tourists and Cubans alike in the same space.

Havana’s plazas have unintentionally become the common ground between tourists and Cubans, despite their location in more privileged areas. These wifi hotspots are continuously populated day and night, and while not the cause, but a factor in Havana’s spatial security. The government may be repressive, but Cubans themselves are only looking for a better life, which means supporting the local economy while taking part in another.

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PHOTO JOURNAL Due to individual sensitivity, many people interviewed did not agree to be photographed. According the government, some are committing a crime by operating a business without a license. For this reason the individuals are not shown, only the street of their business or operation.

El Centro

El Centro 26

El Centro

El Centro 27

Habana Vieja

Habana Vieja 28

Habana Vieja

Habana Vieja 29

Vedado

Vedado 30

Vedado

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ENDNOTES 1 Freedom in the World 2017: The Annual Survey of Political Rights and Civil Liberties. Freedom House. Arch Puddington, Ed. Freedom House, New York.

2018. p. 131.

2 “Los Muertos de Casto.” Archivo Cuba: Proyecto y Memoria. https://profesorcastro.jimdo.com/archivo-cuba/ 3 Atkinson, Andrew. “Two Sides of the Coin: Cuba’s Dictator Fidel Castro.” The Leader. Nov. 2016.

4 Canizares, Lorenzo. “Cuba: What Went Wrong?” Encyclopedia of AntiRevisionism Online. Marxist.org. Feb. 1983.

5 Labrador, Rocio Cara. “US - Cuba Relations.” Council on Foreign Relations. Apr. 2018.

6 Fieser, Ezra. “Cuba’s Struggling Economy Needs a Jolt.” Bloomberg Business Week. Apr. 2018.

7 Goodsell, James Nelson. “Havana.” Encyclopedia Britannica. Apr. 2017.

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