2023 Freetown DAT Report - Flipbook - Page 50
Freetown DAT
• "Two Boxes of Oranges and Admonia Jackson." A
new art installation on the Alexandria waterfront,
this conceptual piece was inspired by the remains
of 18th century ships found on the site during
construction of a local hotel. The work is an abstract
impression of the hull of a ship. As the promotional
language notes, "Visitors can stand within the space
and imagine a time in Alexandria’s history when the
ships carried not only cargo like tobacco, molasses,
rum and limes, but also enslaved people who were
traded as part of the transatlantic and domestic
slave trades."
These historic components collectively build an
experience and tell a powerful story of African-American
history that visitors can encounter in a tangible way.
The investments the city has made have resulted in
record tourism and revenues. Freetown has all of
these components present in its stock of historic sites,
buildings, pathways and experiences. By linking them
together in the city’s powerful narrative, Freetown would
become a meaningful priority destination for people
from across the African and Sierra Leonean Diaspora,
as well as a place of significant interest for people from
elsewhere.
Medellin, Columbia & the “Medellin Miracle,”
Placemaking & Community-based Tourism
In 1992, Medellin had the label as “the world’s most
dangerous city.” Years of war and narcoterrorism had
ravaged the city. In 1991, the homicide rate was a record
381 murders per 100,000 inhabitants. Today the rate
is only 20 per 100,000 inhabitants. In 2013, it was
named the world’s Most Innovative City. Today, the city’s
progress is celebrated as the “Medellin Miracle,” a global
model for its remarkable transformation.
The central strategy for Medellin’s transformation was
labeled social urbanism. Through this strategy, urban
leaders planned a series of infrastructure investments
to address urban inequality in an effort to raise quality
of life for all residents and thereby reduce crime. The
core investment was the city’s vaunted Metro transit
system, which includes fixed commuter rail that runs
on a North/South and East/West axis via two central
lines. This system is supplemented by a tram system
and Metro Cable Car, which extends transit into
hillside neighborhoods where the city’s most vulnerable
residents live and provides critical transport and access
to the rest of the city. The system was accompanied
by a major public process with neighborhoods to
build support for the system and identify critical
complementary investments at neighborhood stations.
Through this strategy, neighborhood stations were
developed with critical community facilities and
amenities such as libraries, community centers, schools,
museums and public space that has had demonstrative
benefits for struggling neighborhoods and has developed
a community wide civic culture surrounding the system
that is now referred to as “The Culture of Metro.” The city
also created 36 green corridors and planted more than
890,000 trees. As former Mayor Federico Gutiérrez
explains, “Some call what has happened here “The
Medellín miracle.” But this was no miracle—it reflects
many years of hard work.” He describes that “involved
partnerships between the public sector, private sector,
academia, and civil society. Teamwork as a society was
a determining factor in the city’s social transformation.”
And at the core of the strategy, Gutierrez identifies
civic capacity and trust as a foundational platform for
success. “Medellín’s success is based on its people and
shared trust. The long-term process of rebuilding the city
is a collective endeavor—nobody succeeds in isolation.”
The results of this sustained partnership and investment
over time are nothing short of incredible. Medellin is now
a thriving city. Between 1999-2018, the city cut poverty
rates from 58% to 28%. Medellin was labeled one of
2023’s “World’s Greatest Places” by Time Magazine
and described as “Columbia’s Creative Capital” for its
vibrant street life and public art. While most destinations
have experienced slow recoveries from the pandemic,
Medellin, Colombia continues to soar in popularity.
In 2021, it saw visitors grow by 41 percent over its
pre-pandemic numbers. Freetown’s transformation
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will require similar long-term vision and commitment
to achieve, but the first cable car line represents an
important initial investment to leverage for placemaking
transformations that can spur economic development.
Medellin’s Communa 13 neighborhood represents a great
model for how creative placemaking can be leveraged for
significant economic development around infrastructure
investment in impoverished neighborhoods. During
Columbia’s war years, this neighborhood was the
epicenter of activity for paramilitary, guerrilla, and narco
gangs. Pablo Escobar’s gangs controlled this area in
the 1980s and 90s and it was generally known to be
the most dangerous place in Columbia. In 2002, the
Columbian military launched Operation Orion, an attack
on the narco traffickers in Communa 13 with a force
over over 1,000. Many residents, including women and
children, were caught in the crossfire and were killed
or wounded. In the aftermath, a struggle for control of
the area took place between paramilitary warlords and
scores of residents went missing in what became known
as “forced disappearances,” never to be seen again. In
2015, authorities unearthed what was described as the
“world’s largest urban mass grave” in the neighborhood.
This heartbreaking history makes Communa 13’s
transformation all the more remarkable. In 2011, the
city constructed a series of 6 covered escalators that
provide an easy 6-minute connection up the steep
hillsides of the neighborhood. They created promenades
and connecting paths at multiple levels of the system.
The walls of the paths became a large scale canvas
for neighborhood street artists and the investment
in infrastructure catalyzed creative placemaking that
has now transformed the area’s prospects. Today,
over 25,000 tourists visit Communa 13 every week to
experience the community narrative via organized and
self-guided tours. Regular street performances occur
daily featuring the vibrant hip-hop scene, dance troupes,
and related performance art. Visual art galleries and
community museums and shops line the edges of the
escalator system and food stalls line the promenades,
which feature spectacular views of the city. People from
all over the world visit Communa 13, which is listed as
a top tourist destination for Medellin alongside national
art museums. The neighborhood has leveraged its
community story through creative placemaking around
an infrastructure investment to create a transformative
economic opportunity. Freetown has a unique creative
community that could be mobilized in a similar fashion
to benefit neighborhoods impacted by the cable car
investment.
Santa Marta: Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Placemaking &
Community-based Tourism
Rio de Janeiro provides multiple experiences with
cable car lines that service a single neighborhood
that are instructive. The Santa Marta Favela typifies
informal neighborhoods in Rio. It is set on a steep
hillside overlooking the city. In 2008, it was the first
neighborhood to receive “pacification” by authorities,
with a permanent police presence to expel gang
activity, restore public safety, and make several social
investments to improve quality of life – including a
fixed funicular tram that has multiple stops up the
steep hillside. In 2010, Dutch artists Dre Urhahn and
Jeroen Koolhaas’ Favela Painting Foundation enlisted
residents to work with them on a creative placemaking
project on a gigantic scale: turning a large portion of
the neighborhood into a single, integrated visual art
piece. The goal of the project was to change perceptions
of the neighborhood with an iconic placemaking effort
and train local resident youth artists in the process.
From Praça Cantão, the square at the gateway to the
neighborhood, a vibrant painting of “monumental scale”
was designed over 34 houses painted in a design of
colorful rays, radiating into the city. The striking piece
covers 7000 square meters. Twenty-five local youth
were trained as painters during the process. The Rio
Top Tour was launched in 2010 in Santa Marta as a
partnership between the Ministry of Tourism and the city
government. It enlisted residents to become certified
tour guides for the neighborhood. A total of 52 residents
were recruited for tour training and an additional 30
residents to learn artisan skills, as well as 100 local
