According to him, it used to be really "fresco", or fresh (I think the best way to describe fresco is "sweater weather") because the park used to be a giant coffee farm. People came from around the country to work on the farm, and in the nights they would sleep comfortably, sometimes having to wear a sweater in the cool morning air.
However, the government decided that they wanted to develop the land. They proposed plans to start building commercial shopping centers and to widen a nearby road to help with traffic problems. These plans meant cutting away much of the land that was used for farming, replacing it with concrete slabs.
Despite many protests and backlash against the plans, they started to build these centers and widen the street. In a photo I’ve posted, you can see the original land (border) compared with what’s there now (very minimal green space). The park now gets really hot, which means they can't grow coffee there anymore, and their water only comes once a day to their houses for about fifteen minutes. The roads turn into rivers and flood when it rains and only a very small amount of people have jobs in this park because of such little farming there now. Last, many families who lived in the planned construction areas were kicked out of their homes.
In saying all of this, it’s important to say that I do spend a fair amount of my time in these commercial centers. They provide places to eat, places to play, places to safely walk around and places to enjoy music, which is important for a musician like me. However, I can enjoy these areas because I’m receiving a generous amount of funding from the Fulbright program, whereas many can’t afford to enjoy the luxuries that come with these projects.
