The building of a Malecon (seafront promenade) from the birth of the Alameda until the Ports Authority building is one of the most important projects underway to mark the half millennium of life of the city of Santiago de Cuba
The city, the sixth founded by the conquistadores, and first Cuban capital, with have again a sea promenade in the Alameda Michaelson, which was inagurated in 1840 by then General Governor Tello, and at that time it was filled with trees and where the different groups of Santiago society gathered.
The Santiago Malecon is part of the General Master Plan to give life back to the historical center of the city. To open the city to the sea is one of the main goals of this plan created by Man Architect Lina Magdariaga, who works with the Office of the Projects and Management of the City’s Historian
The project is in its initial phase, when they have dismantled warehouses and raised the floors for the first part of the Malecon to be ready by July 25, 2015 to mark the 500 anniversary, said architect Laura Tania Montañés García
The children’s playground that is in front of the promenade will receive new equipment. The Marti park will be renovated and keep its social purpose. Then they will plant trees, add lights, benches and pave the roads. The following works are at the Club Nautico, and they will turn the Coast Guard facility into a restaurant.
In addition, the architect said, the building in front of the park will be remodeled and turn into a beer place like the one in Havana by.
The main investor here is the Historians Office, in collaboration with the Sports Institute, the Cuban telecommunication company and others.
Another project is to add to the promenade a streetcar that will travel from the park in it to the Paseo de Marti. It is something to remember those streetcars that circulate in the center of the city in the 1940s.
Some pedestrians and neighbors still can fathom the magnitude of the changes the Alameda is underway. Some claimed not having heard anything about it; others think it will be nice. Others are skeptical about deadlines, and others pray for not having to repair it just months after its completion.
Sociologists from the Historians Office talked to neighbors and out of their surveys, they found out those horse-drawn carts and rickshaws must have an alternate route, maybe parallel to the promenade. Also asked for a better image for those transportation means
When Santiago marks its 500 years of age, many of its inhabitants will love to see on the promenade wall to see the sea, as other Cuban people do in Havana, Cienfuegos, o Baracoa cities
