Former Los Angeles resident Alexandra Marsales runs her leadership business from this cafe in Medí's trendy El Publ neighborhood. I was wondering if you would mind. She's part of a growing community of digital nomads drawn to the Colombia city's natural beauty and fun easygoing vibe.
Marian is uh climate wise is amazing. Uh super professional, organized, clean, uh very easy to move around. uh easy compared to Los Angeles to build a community.
Uh you know, it was easy for me to to make friends and and connect with people that are doing similar things than me and so and find housing. But for locals, the influx of dollar earning newcomers has increasingly meant being priced out of the city prime neighborhoods. Nora Luper, lifelong resident of El Publ, says she and others have been pushed out by landlords seeking higher profits.
Medí was not ready for this new tourist dynamic. We are not against it, but authorities need to control it. Housing prices have become impossible.
We are letting these people come and do what they want with us. The number of people displaced by newcomers is unclear, but city authorities say the roughly half a million people who visited the city last year stayed for 2 weeks or more, and that short-term rental listing jumped from 8,000 in 2022 to over 20,000 this year. District Councelor Andres Fer warns the trend is spreading to workingclass neighborhoods in downtown Medí.
It's a transformation and change is always difficult and we are living through this transition today. But I think we need to find a way to regulate and protect the traditional residents because we are entering a phase in which we are losing our traditions and the sense of belonging to this area. Urbanist Alejandra Cheri says the city has come a long way from the 1990s when it was home to the notorious drug cartel run by Pablo Escobar.
But he warns the tourism boom is fueling lingering social issues such as sex work and growing illegal drug use. In a place like Medí which has such great social challenges and its drug trafficking history, gentrification happens with a special intensity and in more critical ways than in other places. So the response requires many approaches.
One that understands that this new economy is important but needs to happen in a more harmonic way. Monica, a city grappling with its own success must now find a way to balance growth while protecting its own. Allesi, Al Jazzer, Medí, Colombia.
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