"This tower is a perfect example of anarchy."

February 28, 2011 7:07 PM

Squatters on the Skyline: "Facing a mounting housing shortage, squatters have transformed an abandoned skyscraper in downtown Caracas into a makeshift home for more than 2,500 people." [SLNYTVP]
posted by bayani (27 comments total)

wow.
posted by flapjax at midnite at 7:13 PM on February 28, 2011

There's an accompanying article for the video impaired.
posted by ghharr at 7:36 PM on February 28, 2011 [2 favorites]

"This tower is a perfect example of anarchy."

Indeed. And it seems to be a relatively successful one as well, considering the quote from the mother of four, who told an interviewer that the tower is not a dangerous place (in terms of gangs or crime).
posted by flapjax at midnite at 7:36 PM on February 28, 2011 [1 favorite]

Perversely, it appears to be a much better place to live than a lot of sanctioned dwellings, let alone other quasi-legal and illegal ones. No raw sewage running down the middle of the dirt lane that substitutes for a street, relatively little vermin, they're able to secure it with guards because of the limited access points, and the interviewees claim it's safe and there's no gang activity. By quite a few metrics, they're actually better off than a great many.
posted by George_Spiggott at 7:38 PM on February 28, 2011

I went to Caracas when I was 20, it was the first time I saw abandoned skyscrapers. One skyscraper had recently caught fire and there weren't even active clean up crews.. blew me away. But what really struck me was the endless barrios that I saw while driving from the airport into the city. Hundreds of thousands of makeshift houses built into the dangerous muddy mountainsides. The poverty is just unconscionable. I'm glad these people are taking what they can get.
posted by pwally at 7:43 PM on February 28, 2011

George_Spiggott: they're actually better off than a great many.

Especially with working plumbing and electricity. I was/am amazed.
posted by bayani at 7:46 PM on February 28, 2011

There's an empty 15 story office building about one mile from my house. I can only hope that squatters descend on it before KBR moves in there.
posted by Burhanistan at 8:10 PM on February 28, 2011 [2 favorites]

The New York Times has mastered time travel...
March 1st, 2011
posted by aloiv2 at 8:17 PM on February 28, 2011

I want to know more. It's interesting how organized they are - who is this building organizer? Just someone who took it upon themselves to create some stability? Someone with more nefarious purposes? Who pays the sentries? Is crime really not an issue? Are there door locks, or what? How do more people move in?

Insane stuff.
posted by Solon and Thanks at 8:23 PM on February 28, 2011 [2 favorites]

"Especially with working plumbing and electricity."

And a bodega on nearly every floor! Now this is a William Gibson novel come to life.
posted by Kevin Street at 8:36 PM on February 28, 2011 [4 favorites]

Jose Hernandez is a white collar worker in the credit department of the Banco de Venezuela, and lives in a country with the 7th largest oil reserve, and yet he is a squatter.

I'm no economist, but something is really, really wrong with this picture.
posted by marsha56 at 8:36 PM on February 28, 2011 [5 favorites]

Yeah, William Gibson. Will we soon reach Stephen Gould?
posted by hattifattener at 9:41 PM on February 28, 2011 [1 favorite]

We may not have flying cars, but this story is indeed from the future I hoped we'd get. I hope these folks can sustain this and fend off the powers that be . . I know there are precedents in some countries for squatters obtaining legal property rights but in Venezuela I'm not too hopeful for something like that.
posted by chaff at 9:50 PM on February 28, 2011

and by "future I hoped we'd get" I want to be clear I meant big groups of marginalized people creating self-sustaining communities together, not the mass wealth inequalities that lead to people having to live like this. It's pretty horrific in actual fact.
posted by chaff at 10:02 PM on February 28, 2011 [3 favorites]

We can afford to house the poor & destitute with capitalism's table scraps.
Think of what we could accomplish if we actually tried.
posted by Civil_Disobedient at 10:03 PM on February 28, 2011 [17 favorites]

Civil, you've summed it up perfectly.
posted by rodgerd at 12:46 AM on March 1, 2011

I know there are precedents in some countries for squatters obtaining legal property rights but in Venezuela I'm not too hopeful for something like that.

Besides the Bolivarian government's disappointing but predictable response to Qaddafi (although I also oppose an intervention, particularly US/NATO) and other failings, I actually think that squatters might have more of a chance in Venezuela to claim that skyscraper that most other places. The government goes against popular movements enough, but it's more responsive to them than most governments and it's possible it could be a "Bolivar Living Skyscraper" or something like that.
posted by Gnatcho at 3:17 AM on March 1, 2011

Reverse Steam-punk in Venezuela or High-Rise in Latin America?

Where is Alphonso Cuaron? Alejandro Amenábar? There's an entire future-archeology to be documented here.

Have Western financial processes turned that white-collar bank executive into a financial share-cropper for the likes of Citibank and Wells-Fargo?

There's a cautionary tale of debt externalization to be told here.

(Just leave Clive Owen, Tom Cruise and Cameron Crowe OUT of it.)
posted by vhsiv at 3:34 AM on March 1, 2011

via,

Julieth Tilano, 26, lives inside a small shop on the seventh floor with her husband and in-laws. They sell everything from plantains to Pepsi and Belmont cigarettes. Her husband, Humberto Hidalgo, 23, has a side business in which he charges children from the skyscraper 50 cents per half-hour to play PlayStation games on the four television sets in the family’s living room.

“There’s opportunity in this tower,” said Mr. Hidalgo, who immigrated here last year from Valledupar, Colombia.

Some residents own cars parked in the building’s garage. Others sanguinely point to their trim physiques, a result of going up and down the stairs each day. For others, any roof over one’s head is better than none.

Wow, wow, wow. What are they willing to 'pay' for pirate cable and/or sattelite television? The metaphors just seem to grow themselves here -- or have they stopped being metaphors? It sounds like some distaff version of a Ballard novel. A distaff (American|Capitalist) microcosm.

"There’s opportunity in this tower," as if there were any other sideways holes for people to fall into in this broken South American economy.

Things must REALLY suck in Colombia.
posted by vhsiv at 4:23 AM on March 1, 2011

amazing.
posted by empath at 4:45 AM on March 1, 2011

Jose Hernandez is a white collar worker in the credit department of the Banco de Venezuela, and lives in a country with the 7th largest oil reserve, and yet he is a squatter.

He'd be "formerly middle class" in the U.S.

Soon enough, anyway.
posted by ryanshepard at 4:50 AM on March 1, 2011

Is anyone else reminded of Metatropolis, and taking over abandoned skyscrapers?
posted by Han Tzu at 7:50 AM on March 1, 2011

I can't watch this without thinking of children falling, or electrical fires. If the state has taken it over, and has all that oil revenue, why can't they develop it into a model public housing tower? Yes, I know that there are others worse off, but I don't think this is the solution. I can see why the professional planner is appalled. Personally, this seems as far from the point or goal of socialism -- of which Bolivarianism is ostensibly a relative -- as can be, more like a Koch brothers fantasy world, a vertical Somalia.

I mean, truly effective self-organizing societies would be better at providing basic disaster and life safety as well as actual power, water, and environmental services. Right?
posted by dhartung at 8:49 AM on March 1, 2011

> I can't watch this without thinking of children falling, or electrical fires.

This is Venezuela, not the US. They don't vet lawyers on every aspect of the potential liabilities in everyday life. (FWIW, my Lawyer father had the same response regarding the lack of guard-rails on bridges in rural France.)

Unlike the US, parents teach children to be responsible for their actions at an early age and teach their kids not to do stupid things where great heights are involved.
posted by vhsiv at 9:11 AM on March 1, 2011

why can't they develop it into a model public housing tower

The reasons are complicated, but it basically boils down to investors would rather lose their money gambling than spend their money on a good cause.
posted by Civil_Disobedient at 10:33 AM on March 1, 2011

"I can't watch this without thinking of children falling, or electrical fires."

Sadly, in the article it mentions that at least one child has already fallen to her death. That's why some people are building their own walls, like that guy in the video with the trowel. I hope they never have a fire, but that's probably wishful thinking.

"I mean, truly effective self-organizing societies would be better at providing basic disaster and life safety as well as actual power, water, and environmental services. Right?"

Oh, absolutely. But everything takes time, and they've only been living in the building for less than a decade. If the housing crisis in Venezuela continues to drag on, and these people continue to live in the Tower of David, who knows what kind of improvements they might eventually make. It's messy and probably involves a lot of mistakes and waste, but that kind of continuous tinkering could eventually produce some amazing results. And then the next generation of squatters would start off in a much better situation than the first.
posted by Kevin Street at 1:49 PM on March 1, 2011

Inhabitat.com has a slideshow of gleaned images, for those without video watching capabilities.
posted by filthy light thief at 11:23 AM on March 16, 2011