Slums: The Future By Whitney Eulich

I thought this was an interesting excerpt about Venezuela:

In Venezuela, the barrio of Petare emerged from the construction of a city highway, which took more than a decade to complete. The workers’ barracks in the Petare foothills quickly transformed into an ideal space for squatters. Today red-brick, tin-roof shelters, patched with cardboard and soil, cover the steep slopes. Like most slums across the globe, residents suffer from poorly maintained or missing infrastructure, a lack of security, high crime rates, drug trade, amateur construction, and a lack of public spaces.

But barrios and favelas in Latin America can transform into something better than the “formal city.” Slums are pedestrian-friendly, produce considerably less trash, and consume less resources. Additionally, they have high levels of social cohesion. “Barrios are no longer the places of transition where people go because they think they will live somewhere else next month or next year,” said Klumpner. “If you go in those places, you find the models of how cities could be built. However, assistance is needed.”