Enclosing Beauty and Privileges: Disputes over the Production of Exclusive Urban Spaces in Bogota, Colombia

Over fifty years a group of upper class residents in Bogotá have organized and relied on their association to create a beautiful and secured neighborhood surrounded by nature and principles of good taste and high standards of living. The production of such an exclusive space with zero levels of criminality and violence contrasts with the 60 years of armed conflict that Colombia endured until the recently signed peace agreement and with decades of strikingly high rates of homicides. The traditional founders of this model see it a civic and moral legacy that they are willing to defend with determination against the city hall and newcomers that do not share their codes of manners. The previous city administration, though, considered it an unviable privatized pattern of dwelling that should be intervened since it reproduced privileges, an unequal enjoyment of space, and the exclusion of others. In this paper we will discuss how these disputes and tensions over of the meaning and uses of urban space pose many dilemmas to face the democratic principles of justice and equity that should prevail while facing the limits of the city growth.