From all the signs hanging on the outside of buildings, this must be the time to sell in San Telmo. (I count 9 for sale signs in this photo). I just wish that someone would go ahead and buy all those buildings so that they can take down those for sale signs and return the streets to normal. All the signs are messing up everyone’s photos of these lovely streets.
Actually, there’s a building down the street from me on Av Caseros that was sold over six months ago and the “for sale/sold” signs are STILL hanging all over that building. Enough!
Walking somewhere along Chile I came across this new stencil, imploring that San Telmo not become Palermo.
But I think that it’s a lost cause. At least San Telmo has more interesting architecture than Palermo.
April 10th, 2007 at 7:30 pm
It’s a completely lost cause. Gentrification can suck. And people moan about it. But a lot of the same people end up benefiting from it.
April 12th, 2007 at 7:59 pm
I’d agree somewhat with Dan. The people that moan about gentrification are usually the people who don’t have to live or survive in the mess that’s there in the first place or are so boho (or better the french term bobo: bourgeois-boheme) that they don’t realise they’re the cause of the gentrification. ‘Oh, what a shame this area was ever done up-the open sewer, crime and the rubbish everywhere added *such* charm to the place. When i first moved here it was a complete dump.’
If the locals in San Telmo get their timing right, they’ll make a fortune and might even be able to move to a barrio they, as native portenos, consider ‘better’…
Over here in Chile, Valparaiso has a certain ‘charm’ to its crumbly, seedy side but i bet the locals would happily trade that charm for a city that worked like a swiss clock…
April 16th, 2007 at 10:22 pm
[...] But, the symptoms are the same, for sale signs are sprouting up like weeds. Another BA blogger recently remarked on the proliferation of such signs in San Telmo… [...]
April 18th, 2007 at 4:08 am
Yes. we sold two (and bought 4 more) and in each case the signs stayed up for months and months. The agents keep things on their books. I think it is more a case of stock drying up in San Telmo as locals have caught up with the fact that it now has the lowest index of crime in the whole city (one positive effect of all the gentrification) and it is incredibly near the business centre, Puerto Madero etc….
I don’t think San Telmo will ever be like Palermo but it is rapidly turning into London’s Covent Garden or, if we are lucky, Greenwich Village….
I’d still buy in San Telmo rather than Palermo because of the location, the architecture and the light.