Casco Viejo, A Model for Panama Progress
Casco Viejo Blog - In a country slated to be dented by the world’s financial collapse, Panama’s historic district of Casco Viejo is experiencing pains, but of a different nature: struggling to sustain its unconventional appeal, for example, focusing on community needs, and preaching a mantra that mega-destinations (especially in a time of global rewiring) are far past their prime. Casco Viejo sits as a counter-model for the way development has traditionally been perceived, where quality (not quantity) is key. And where the conformist norms of progress are broken almost every day. (more)
February 15th, 2009 – Cancun, Mexico - Mammoth hotels with olympic pools and mile-long crab buffets are so desperate for guests that they’re knocking up to 75% off room rates. The beaches in this, the proverbial height of high season, sit relatively quiet and small local restaurants like Subway and El Shrimp Bucket reveal businesses is down more than half from last year. Reportedly, even the dolphins at Swimming With Flipper Eco-Park are depressed, which no one can believe because dolphins are always happy. Uncontrolled growth, Mexican gang crime, and a doomed stock market led vacationers elsewhere this year, or nowhere at all.
More and more people are flocking to the tiny peninsula’s shores. A UNESCO World Heritage Site, Casco Viejo’s residents and business owners know a thing or two about going against the grain. Acknowledged as the only place in Panama where construction restrictions are rigid and bad taste can be legally prevented, Casco Viejo has maintained a certain avant-garde amidst a sea of predictable development in Panama: a vision for something not generic and smooth but rough around the edges. It boasts no pools the size of small countries nor any famous brand names. What Casco Viejo lacks in gaucherie…it prefers to keep that way.
July 6th, 2008 – Disneyland, Anaheim - Usually jam packed in summer months, the theme park feels eerily lifeless with the empty old-fashioned lobby at “Ye Ole’ Movie Theater” appearing to have died decades ago. With gas prices high and the economy slowing, work for park employees has been cut and park hours are next. Tourists decide instead to ride the teapots at their local town carnival. To compensate, food prices at Disneyland have increased, upping hotdogs from the price of ridiculous to the downright insulting.
But business in Casco Viejo advances. In the midst of a global credit crunch, local owners deal regularly with their share of problems, granted relatively few of them have to do with a fractured economy. In roundtable discussions arise issues such as garbage collection, the difficult of parking, and patrimonial watchdogging: an effort by Casco’s people to preserve the district’s true appeal. Progress is evident: new art galleries and cafes open up on a monthly basis, Casco Viejo real estate development is more active than ever, and hotels experience occupancy numbers upwards of 90%. More and more big city visitors from abroad are deciding to stay a while, say its residents. They understand Casco’s atypical charm.
October 12th, 2008 – Atlantic City - September saw arguably the biggest collective drop ever in revenue at Atlantic City casinos, around 15%. A smoking ban up for vote threatens to sink the gambling capital even further into the trenches with hotels thinking twice about their $800/night suites and bars offering discounts on their $700 bottles of Grey Goose. High rollers are more cautious with their money, fanny pack tourists stay at home, and thousands of casino employees will lose their jobs in the coming months. “A thousand year, once-in-a-lifetime perfect storm,” gave one gaming executive as defense, but even the streetwalkers know the town is dispensable.
At a time when the world’s mass-appealing destinations are dying, rare spots like Casco Viejo emerge as thought-provoking. Development is up, morale is high: a tribute to a neighborhood that’s constantly evolving, that’s constantly changing. The ocean breezes that fill Casco’s plazas may come and go, but its uniqueness and sustainability should last forever: a perfect model for Panama as a whole seeking its own identity. Contrary to the McMasterplans of development, Casco Viejo runs on the fumes of passionate visionaries and enamored visitors who demonstrate, for the first time since the days of mom and pop shops, that authenticity still has a place among us.
Note: This article was reprinted with permission from the Casco Viejo Blog at Los Cuatro Tulipanes luxury short and long-term apartments in Casco Viejo. Email for reservations at info@loscuatrotulipanes.com
Testimonial: “Casco Viejo and Los Cuatro Tulipanes is pretty much everything that New Yorkers love about New York, without everything that we hate about New York. First of all, the feel of the place is old. Not old as in tired or slow or unpopular, but old as in Captain Morgan used to hang out here; it doesn't take too many rums to imagine scenes in the plazas a few hundred years ago. Similar to what a famous American author once said about New York City “anyone that lives anywhere else is somehow kidding himself.” If you go to Panama City or Panama in general and don't spend time in Casco Viejo, you're just not a serious traveler. Like New York, if you want to go mainstream you can: stay in a grotesque high-rise in downtown Panama City. But if you are the kind of person that likes mixing it up in the real New York; The Lower East Side, The West Village, or any other place that hasn't been over-run by Baby GAP, then Casco might be you.” - Adam Strauss, 26, Manhattan
