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Crime rate

Medellín was once known as the world’s most violent city (Jakobsen, 2016). In the 1990’s, Medellín had the highest murder rate in the world and was known as the murder capital. However, now due to the metrocable and PUI’s, Medellín is adding to more positive recognition. In 2013 it was named the most innovative city in the world by the international urban land institute (Young, 2019) and has come top of the list for most liveable cities in south America (Young, 2019). Crime rate has slowed down considerable due to the positive transformation of the city.

Margarita Castaño Echavarría who has lived in Medellín all her life notices the difference made by the metrocable and PUI’s. “Life has improved, both here in this city and in the country generally. In the nineties we were always afraid of walking on the streets, because a bomb could go off at any moment. Almost no foreigners dared visit Colombia either. But now we see more and more tourists, and we also see that more foreign companies invest and set up their offices here in this city,” (Jakobsen, 2016).

Figure 21 shows the different districts and their crime levels between 19992008, before and after the MetroCable was implemented. The results from the table show that line “K” had the biggest impact and reduced crime in the areas of Santo Domingo, Popular and Andalucía (where there is a MetroCable station) by an average of 87%. The results also show that line “J” did not have as big of an impact in crime reduction with Belen and Castilla only showing an average of 9.5%. Given that the survey was also conducted in 2008, the impacts of the implementation of line “J” are unlikely to have fully taken effect, thus the reduction in crime appears lower. Despite this, the building of stations itself will have had an impact on the community as it is a tangible improvement and investment from the government.

Figure20: Military on streets combating everyday crimes. (villatorro, 2014)

Line “K” Line “J”

No Line

Figure21: Table of crime rates before and after the metrocable. (Borraez, 2015) after Author

Figure22: PUI development of play areas in slum districts. (villatorro, 2014)

Before the Metrocable 1993-2003

After the Metrocable 2004-2008

Figure23: Table of homicide rates before and after the metrocable. (Borraez, 2015)

Crime rate

Additionally, the park library San Javier was opened in 2006, therefore the decreasing crime rate might also be due to the growth in community that was occurring because inauguration of the first park library. The districts of Manrique and Robledo do not have a station located within them or any PUI investments made up until the survey was taken and not only fail to see a reduction in crime but actually see an increase of up to 10%.

Figure 23 shows the percentage of homicides before and after the metrocable. Between 1993-2003, before the transport system and the integral projects were implemented, there was a 10% homicide rate. Comparing to the period of 2004-2008 this percentage was reduced to 4%, this shows that Medellín saw a reduction of 6% in homicides after the MetroCable and PUI’s were put in place. The graph above reflects that before the MetroCable and PUI’s were initiated there was a total of 798 homicides (Borraez, 2015) in the influenced zones and this number was reduced considerably to 98 (Borraez, 2015). Making the overall reduction of homicides in affected zones 88%.

Overall the result of the study shows that the decline of crime rate in the intervention neighbourhoods was 66% times higher (Borraez, 2015) than in neighbourhoods without investment. However, the MetroCable wasn’t the only thing to force this change. It was mainly the overall investment made into the underprivileged districts that helped reduce the violence that the city endured. The investment brought back trust to the public sector and as a result it healed communities and restored its debt to the neglected barrios of Medellín. The investment in public and open spaces allowed places of gathering instead of people fearing streets, and the MetroCable provided the link to a better future and growing opportunities. Beatriz Ortiz, a cleaning lady, affirmed: “I now feel much safer than before the construction of the Metrocable and PUI’s.” (Beyond carbon ,2012, p.3).

Education and Employment

Figure 24 represents the rise in secondary school attendance after the metrocable was implemented. This could be due to more access provided by the cable car connections, adding to the decreasing crime rate as the majority of crimes are involving younger generations (Borraez, 2015).

The graph in Figure 25shows the correlation between household income and university attendance. Although the upper and middle classes still have a higher attendance, there is a slow increase (Colombia Reports,2019) of poorer and lower-class households attending universities. This increase starts after the year 2003 coinciding with the construction of the MetroCable which allowed access to higher education, therefore keeping young adults of the streets, resulting in a decreasing crime rate.

The overall trend in education shows a greater involvement after the development of the metrocable, the same can be said for unemployment which has continued to decrease. This is expected as the boost in education would likely be followed by better rates of employment. Figure 26 shows the years following the construction of the metrocable in 2004 and the slow decline of unemployment rate since.

Figure24: Graph showing secondary school enrollment. (Colombia Reports, 2019)

Figure25: Graph showing correlation between household income and university attendance. (Colombia Reports, 2019)

Figure26: Graph showing unemployment rates in colombia. (Colombia Reports, 2019) 16.