Malling Ticos, Mauling forest

Where does one expect to encounter a mall?  Scottsdale, AZ; Green Hills, TN; Los Angeles, CA; London.
It's hard to imagine these cities without them.  We love to hate them, and I for one used to find myself at them far more often than logic ever directed.  Movies, cheap clothes, expensive clothes, not to mention all the food court action your bowels can handle - and more!
    Monteverde has been crying for a mall, and needs one the way farmers need pesticide.  Well, we're going to get one, so it would seem.  Several local business owners have gotten together and purchased a nice chunk of land on the Eastern slope of the Santa Elena Valley.  The property itself used to look like this:

Currently, it looks more like this:

There are those that are really excited about the influx of US business interests in Monteverde, such as these folks , who will be financing most of the businesses that buy into the mall.  Monteverde's younger population is also apparently quite excited about the prospects of our very own mall.  A recent "study" by the mall developers shows unequivocally that 100% of Monteverde's teenagers (and their mothers) think the town is boring and would be better with a mall.  it would offer more shopping options (imports), employ more workers and ensure lower prices.  How can you argue with that?  The science was sound, and a nice little pie chart colored a delicate rose seems to justify the ends perfectly. 

There are also those rabblerousers in town that are not so fond of inviting Wal-mart (here called "Hiper-Mas") Macdonald's and Gap to throw up stores in the middle of one of the world's last remaining Cloud Forests.  That would, by my own study, include just about everyone else.  By everyone else, I'm not excluding the same youth and parents that are supposedly such dogged supporters of the construction.  Crazily enough, when I had my fifth and sixth graders design their own survey about mall development and environmental impact, nearly 90% of the young people interviewed showed major trepidation about the mall's impact on local business and ecosystems.  So did their mothers.  Most indicated that they are indeed often bored here (isn't that a prerequisite for adolescence?), and that the night tours to see the same tarantulas that crawl across their bathroom tile isn't exactly as exciting to them as it is to the gringoes.  However, they are also pretty sure that a mall will not alleviate said boredom, especially since it looks like the complex will not include a movie theater or video arcade, as originally promised.  This is the billboard that at one point advertised the coming of the mall. It's been like this for months...

The sign reads:
No to Parking lots!  Yes to Parks!  A mall?  What a disgrace!

The mall will not be renting space.  The lots are for purchase only.  $2000 per square meter.  That means a store the size of a Lincoln Navigator will sell for around $20,000.  Want in?  Now's the time to buy.  Financing is available (see above).  Did I mention that several of the developers work for them? 

The other fascinating piece of the mall puzzle for me is that the developers have sought the help of The Cloud Forest School to improve it's image and standing in the community.  They have asked for advice and collaboration on reforesting part of the property, and perhaps squeezing in some native plant gardens in between big box stores.  I am loathe to help on one hand, but then again, musn't one make the most of any reality, no matter how ugly it may be?  We are proposing that the mall developers take a proactive role in Monteverde's fledgeling recycling program.  We'd like to see the mall not only plant a few trees, but put standards for waste/energy management in place that could serve as a model for other businesses.  If they want our help, we will gladly give it, but that doesn't mean we will be poster children for a monster that brings more erosion and deforestation to an already fragile biosphere. 

The cold truth is that the mall is coming wherther we like it or not.  It will be completed by the end of 2009 (so it is said) and it will change the face of Monteverde forever.  All that we can hope at this point is that they take as many of our suggestions as possible, and that the people of this town see it for what it is and continue to value the local recources, locally owned businesses and diversity that makes this place such an amazing community.  Let's hope that the erosion can be contained. 

Comments

[Ryan]

This is the kind of thing that makes my fantasy career in ecoterro'rizm sound that much sweeter. Fuck that. And now I'm sure I'm on an FBI watch list just for typing that. Sigh.