The City Of Puerto Madero
Crossing Avenida Paseo Colon, marking one’s departure from San Telmo and subsequent entrance into Puerto Madero is like crossing into a whole new city. Puerto Madero streets are somehow quiet, as if portenos have mercifully agreed to a traffic code of conduct in just this one barrio. The sidewalks are a wide contrast to the normally narrow streets of Buenos Aires, and the broad avenue lanes are divided by strips of grass illuminated by soft lamps in the evenings. A cobblestone bridge carries urban foot travelers across a view of the river that is a refreshingly open breather in this magnificently jam-packed city. The river sparkles in-between its cement dams and giant, colorful cranes adorn the bridge, seeming to keep an eye on the barrio.
The cranes remind one of the construction required to make Puerto Madero what it is today. Built in the 1890’s as the city’s leading port, it was abandoned only a decade after its completion due to the quickly changing shipping industry. For an entire century, the area was more or less unclaimed, making it a no-man’s-land of decay and degradation. Finally, in the 1990’s, the city laid claim to Puerto Madero. The old, empty, and decaying warehouses were renovated and remodeled into coveted apartment lofts, raved-about restaurants, classy hotels, and posh office buildings.
Crossing Avenidas Aime Paine, Juana Manso, Olga Cossettini, and Julieta Lanterri will make you wonder at the feminine names of the avenues. In a machismo metropolis where the streets carry the legacies of the country’s masculine heroes, from Bolivar to San Martin, the gender difference in this barrio is a noticeable one. And it is all on purpose—Puerto Madero renovation plans included renaming each street after an Argentine feminist. This barrio really is cutting edge, a model of progress and revitalization.
Passing by all these female-inspired streets will eventually lead you to the Ecological Reserve, a stunning display of the power of nature. This nature preserve is a peaceful sanctuary of rolling fields wrapped by inlaid hiking and biking trails, flocked with birds, wildflowers, trees, shrubs, and other exotic wildlife that is hard to come by in such an urban and densely populated city. The reserve itself used to be a concrete junkyard, a graveyard preserving the remains of failed attempts at development. Years of abandonment let nature walk back in the door, and soon enough, She took over, to the point where the past evidence of development dumping is invisible. I could walk in the Ecological Reserve every day, never tiring of the fresh air and beautiful views of the estuary.
As you leave the Ecological Reserve and walk back along the avenues, past the Hotel Madero, past the Universidad Catolica, past the dozens upon dozens of other boutiques, inns, and cafes, you will find it hard to believe that this trendy, clean, and vibrant neighborhood lay in ruins a mere 15 years ago. It is an amazing feat, and a complete testament to the city of Buenos Aires.