Earlier this week I was giving Donald, a faithful blog reader and new friend from New York, a walking tour of Flores. We took the A line out to Caballito, then walked down Yerbal into Flores. Yerbal is one of my favorite streets in that area, filled with a number of nice homes as you can see in the photo below. That entire block is beautiful with one obvious exception. This is a good example for the City that Fades Away series.
November 22nd, 2007 at 2:32 pm
I believe the thing out of place in the photo is the tall, big building among the low, old houses. Some cities are careful to let modern constructions be built where a historic place should be preserved, or at least to preserve the architectural interest of a neighbourhood. Shame on us, we like to think that we are Europeans but we behave differently in matters like this.
November 22nd, 2007 at 2:43 pm
Agree with Ricky.
And that´s why I escaped from Palermo and moved to Chacarita -a neighborhood which some real state agents would call “Palermo Deade” (:D) in order to double their income-.
Shit happens when a nice house is demolished and a tower is built instead. I wonder if in a century or so, these towers would be replaced by another sort of crap, and NGOs would run after protecting these last towers, which eventually became a relic.
Blame the goverment, payed by the real states to authorize the construction of these buildings.
November 22nd, 2007 at 4:53 pm
Yes, you’re both correct!
I hadn’t heard about the new name for Chacarita. That’s ridiculous.
It’s amazing that the city is letting this type of demolition and construction go forward.
November 23rd, 2007 at 1:10 pm
This is a bit of topic, but your blog as well as well as Robert’s are seriously making me consider moving to Argentina for a while. You make it sound like an intresting place to live in.
November 24th, 2007 at 12:07 pm
Hi Gricelle, Buenos Aires is certainly an interesting place to live. Definitely, the most fascinating place I’ve ever lived.
November 28th, 2007 at 3:52 pm
Yes, BA is an interesting place to live… providing that you are going to stay a certain number of YEARS, that is what it takes to definitely “understand” us Argentines.
November 29th, 2007 at 1:35 am
Jeff, I live right across the corner from where you took the photo.
I might add that the white building in he center is being restored, in order to recover the original “piedra París” facade.
About “Palermo Deade”
It’s known that Palermo is an expansionist neighborhood. The Palermo Hippodrome is in Belgrano, Colegiales is now Palermo Queens, etc
Actually, Barcelona newspaper (something like an porteño version of The Onion) has made a map renaming Villa Devoto as “palermo Alcatraz”, Bajo Flores as “Palermo Korea town”, Villa Ortúzar as “Palermo Asshole” etc.