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The recovery of historical centres and their integrated development
Organizational Chart

The Integrated Development Plan also defined ten strategies essential for working in the zone, which are in line with the policies mentioned above. These policies and strategies were put into practice through implementation of the Investment Plan and the socio-cultural programmes, run by the Office of the Historian.


•RECOVER THE URBAN STRUCTURAL HERITAGE, whose main guidelines are to concentrate most of the rehabilitation in areas with great potential, extending the range of activity according to the availability of resources; recover those tertiary axes and urban border areas that have highest priority; develop separate focal points as energizers of the process within the urban area while assigning resources to specific cases that are special because of their social importance or urgency.


•STRENGTHEN CULTURAL DEVELOPMENT on the basis of the study and preservation of cultural, archaeological and artistic heritage and its development and dissemination; contribute to the awareness and appreciation of that heritage on the part of the Historical Centre community and the population in general, through cultural programming; disseminate the work of the Office of the Historian in recovering and preserving heritage; continue to market the most authentic cultural products, contributing at the same time to the sustainability of the task of restoration and conservation of museum objects.


•DEVELOP THE LOCAL ECONOMY based on the efficient promotion of heritage resources; gradually modify the economic structure; strengthen the economic activities that contribute to development of the territory; develop new activities and sectors; make it possible for the local economy to be heterogeneous and diversify funding sources.





•STRENGTHEN THE TERTIARY FUNCTION that includes the areas of tourism, real estate and metropolitan services, to guarantee a tourism industry with rigorous criteria of selection and sustainability; evaluate at the opportune time the practical, physical and economic implications of the assimilation and expansion of cruise ship tourism; prioritize develop plans in the real estate sector and stimulate the recovery of different services that distinguished the Historical Centre and which gave it its character of polyfunctional, hierarchical and highly qualified.


•RESOLVE HOUSING PROBLEMS by running programmes to improve residential areas using a manageable plan; define an intervention model for the habitat; design habitat programmes with social and participatory outreach; establish a separate decentralized productive organization which responds in an integrated fashion to the habitat programmes in the territory. Diversify sources of financing for undertaking the programmes, establish maximum rationalization and control of the technical material resources and perfect the legal mechanisms that regulate the housing rehabilitation processes.


•PROMOTE PARTICIPATORY REHABILITATION that encourages the resident population to take an active part in its planning; introduce the participation of informal community representatives; favour co-management of the processes and start an ideas bank that includes possible projects.


•DEVELOP SERVICES FOR THE HABITAT (community tools) that achieve excellent conditions and adequate distribution of learning centres; perform actions that allow for improvements in health services, assuring adequate distribution in the territory, and promote a culture of health through alternative means. At the same time, the plan is to revive the commercial network and general services of the territory, both in number of locales and in the services they offer; consolidate the organizational structure dedicated to hygiene in the Historical Centre and provide the equipment necessary to carry out this task; stimulate the population to participate in cultural activities and equip available sports grounds, all in close coordination with the Municipal Government.





•IMPROVE INFRASTRUCTURE NETWORKS as analyzed from different perspectives: infrastructure related to the main roads will respond to the needs of vehicle traffic, in line with the functional categories of the city’s transit system, establishing additional measures and restrictions in feeder and collector roads to promote pedestrian walkways; secondary streets will continue to be perfected with special attention paid to improving the technical conditions of pavements and to means for regulating and controlling transit; parking is to be increased in various ways in order to satisfy the demand; the city’s mass transit system is to be complemented; how cargo transport operates is to be organized in order to minimize the negative effects that it generates. In the hydric systems, the main plans are to eventually supply all consumers with drinking water via the network, eliminating service via the cistern trucks currently in use; improve the quality of existing sewer and rainwater drainage systems; for manufactured gas, complete the gas plan within the territory; in the electric system, make the electricity network more efficient and develop the lighting plan. For the weak current systems, it is important to perfect telephone service and to develop cable television.


•DEVELOP INTERNATIONAL COOPERATION in order to guarantee a more efficient use of cooperation resources; stimulate multilateral cooperation; stimulate decentralized cooperation through the Local Human Development Programme, sponsored by UNDP/UNOPS – all of the above in close connection with the Ministry for Foreign Investment and Economic Collaboration (MINVEC).


•PROMOTE A CULTURE OF ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION that proposes developing a metropolitan integration strategy; protect the urban environment, natural resources and biological diversity as part of the policy drawn up by the Ministry of Science, Technology and the Environment; promote management of a more efficient and welcoming transport and transit system; facilitate efficient and effective management for collecting solid wastes and for sanitation; encourage the efficient use of energy and comply with the guidelines drawn up by the Ministry of Basic Industry and the Ministry of Science, Technology and the Environment; improve existing open spaces and create new ones in the zone and improve environmental health and attention to vulnerable groups.