Thank you for this wonderful essay. So insightful. I visited GC when I was young (visiting my adopted sister’s foster family), and it was, as you say, chaotic, beautiful, and smoggy in all the best ways. Those volcanoes are something else. Now I feel like I need to go back!
Central America is becoming increasingly fascinating to me. Projects like Cayalá in Guatemala and Las Catalinas in Costa Rica are interesting because they combine the virtues of traditional architecture and an emphasis on walkability with an embrace of market mechanisms. Both places are unapologetically capitalist, prices are high because there is huge demand for this kind of human centred place. Prices are signals and the signals here are saying to build more of it. Hence why they have come under attack from the nitpickers who would prefer nothing be built than that rich people get nice things (get nice things first I should say, because much like features of smartphones and cars, good things filter down from the top.)
Hands down one of my favorite essays by you or anyone in substack. I visited GC in 2008 and reading about this transformation fills me with hope in a way that I've really needed.
A few follow up questions:
Do you see a short or medium term horizon where any part of the city becomes a major expat destination like parts of Mexico City or Panama City?
How much of the economic growth is driven by second order impacts from the diaspora? I could see a narrative where remittances and returnees with acquired skills are driving faster growth. I could also see a world where the growth is happening in spite of a brain drain and broader emigration.
Thank you for this wonderful essay. So insightful. I visited GC when I was young (visiting my adopted sister’s foster family), and it was, as you say, chaotic, beautiful, and smoggy in all the best ways. Those volcanoes are something else. Now I feel like I need to go back!
Love this!
Central America is becoming increasingly fascinating to me. Projects like Cayalá in Guatemala and Las Catalinas in Costa Rica are interesting because they combine the virtues of traditional architecture and an emphasis on walkability with an embrace of market mechanisms. Both places are unapologetically capitalist, prices are high because there is huge demand for this kind of human centred place. Prices are signals and the signals here are saying to build more of it. Hence why they have come under attack from the nitpickers who would prefer nothing be built than that rich people get nice things (get nice things first I should say, because much like features of smartphones and cars, good things filter down from the top.)
Hands down one of my favorite essays by you or anyone in substack. I visited GC in 2008 and reading about this transformation fills me with hope in a way that I've really needed.
A few follow up questions:
Do you see a short or medium term horizon where any part of the city becomes a major expat destination like parts of Mexico City or Panama City?
How much of the economic growth is driven by second order impacts from the diaspora? I could see a narrative where remittances and returnees with acquired skills are driving faster growth. I could also see a world where the growth is happening in spite of a brain drain and broader emigration.